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AHISTOK^ICAL  STUDY 
BY    KIJSSELL    STUKGIS 


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Digitized  by  the  Internet  Archive 

in  2007  with  funding  from 

IVIicrosoft  Corporation 


http://www.archive.org/details/europeanarchitecOOsturiala 


EUROPEAN   ARCHITECTURE 


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European  Architecture 

A    HISTORICAL    STUDY 


BY 

RUSSELL   STURGIS,  A.M.,  Ph.D.,  F.A.LA. 

PRESIDENT   OF  THE   FINE  ARTS    FEDERATION    OF   NEW  YORK;    PAST    PRESIDENT  OF  THE 

ARCHITECTURAL   LEAGUE  OF   NEW   YORK;    VICE-PRESIDENT  OF  THE   NATIONAL 

SCULPTURE  SOCIETY;   HONORARY   MEMBER  OF  THE  MURAL  PAINTERS 

ETC.,  ETC. 


^rt  still  1)30  trut]^ ;  take  refuge  tljere !  " 


Neto  Ifork 
THE    MACMILLAN    COMPANY 

LONDON :  MACMILLAN  &  CO.,  Ltd. 
1896 

All  rights  reserved 


Copyright,  1896, 

By  the  macmillan  company. 


J.  S.  Cuahing  &  Co.  -  Berwick  &  Smith 
Norwood  Mass.  U.S.A. 


ERRATA 

Page  247.     The  footnote  is  a  part  of  the  footnote  on  page  245,  and  there- 
fore  the   reference   figure  "  i,"   on   page    247,  should   be 
omitted. 
Page  335.     Top  line  ;  for  "  pediments  "  read  "  tympanums." 
Page  399.     Line  second  from  bottom  ;  for  "  one  bay  "  read  "  two  bays." 
Page  549.     s.  V.  Bell ;  for  "  has  no  echinus  "  read  "  is  the  echinus." 
Page  550.     s.  V.  Channel ;  for  "  Greek  or  Doric  "  read  "  Grecian  Doric." 
Page  552.     s.  V.  Corbel ;  for  "  in  course  "  read  "  in  courses." 
Page  559.     s.  V.  Quoin  ;  for  "  one  or  many  "  read  "  one  of  many." 


PREFACE 

This  book  is  intended  to  show  that  the  history  of 
architecture  is  a  study  of  absorbing  interest.  If  the  atten- 
tion is  fixed  upon  the  inherent  and  essential  pecuHarities 
of  each  style,  the  effort  of  the  student  will  be  of  neces- 
sity to  discover  the  reasons  for  those  peculiarities.  Thus, 
in  the  simplest  case  imaginable :  wherein  does  Gothic 
architecture  differ  from  Romanesque  architecture,  and 
what  are  the  causes  of  the  difference.'*  These  causes 
are  to  seek  in  a  minute  comparison  of  the  works  of  the 
Gothic  and  the  Romanesque  builders.  They  are  to  be 
found  in  actual  masonry  and  carpentry  and,  in  a  sec- 
ondary sense,  in  sculpture  and  colour-decoration.  The 
analysis  and  comparison  of  these  peculiarities,  with  such 
reference  to  well-established  chronology  as  will  show 
which  pieces  of  building  are  contemporaneous  and  which 
other  pieces  of  building  follow  one  another  closely  in 
order  of  time,  is  certainly  the  most  fascinating  pursuit 
possible  for  all  those  who  have  the  instinct  of  form  and 
colour.  The  farther  refinement  of  this  enquiry  into  eth- 
nological and  anthropological  research  is  rather  for  the 
scientifically  inclined  than  for  those  to  whom  decorative 
art  is  the  chief  matter.  For  these  last,  the  analysis  and 
criticism  of  their  beloved  art  itself  is  quite  enough.  A 
multitude    of    questions   arise   which    are    purely   artistic 


VI 


PREFACE 


questions,  and  the  more  carefully  the  answers  to  those 
questions  are  sought,  the  more  they  are  elaborated,  re- 
fined upon,  confirmed,  verified,  the  more  interesting  does 
the  history  of  architecture  become. 

It  is  to  be  remembered  also  that  the  subjects  of  this 
enquiry  are  in  themselves  full  of  interest.  The  buildings 
which  we  study  are  always  singularly  attractive  and  often 
of  extreme  beauty.  The  beauty  is  increased,  and  the 
attractiveness  of  the  less  beautiful  is  multiplied  many- 
fold  by  minute  examination  into  the  ways  in  which  their 
builders  and  sculptors  did  their  work.  In  the  study  of 
any  fine  art,  gain  in  the  power  of  distinguishing  the  better 
from  the  less  good  is  accompanied  by  a  still  increasing 
power  of  enjoying  the  best.  It  is  better  to  sit  at  home 
with  a  plan  and  twenty  photographs,  with  a  sense  of  what 
that  architecture  truly  means,  than  it  is,  without  that  sense, 
to  visit  the  cathedral  itself  or  all  the  cathedrals  in  France. 

The  sense  of  what  is  fine  in  architecture  is  to  be 
gained  by  the  study  of  the  buildings  themselves ;  and 
the  more,  the  better.  It  is  not  too  much  to  say,  however, 
that  a  few  weeks  rightly  spent,  among  the  best  examples 
and  with  a  knowledge  of  what  to  look  for,  is  worth  many 
seasons  of  travel  under  other  conditions.  It  is  therefore 
with  some  confidence  that  this  book  is  offered  as  a  guide 
to  those  who  would  study  architecture  for  themselves. 

For  those  who  cannot  at  once  visit  the  monuments 
which  still  exist  in  Europe,  it  may  be  said  that  their 
position  toward  all  European  architecture  is  not  unlike 
the  position  which  the  most  favoured  of  us  hold  with 
regard    to   Greek   and    Roman    architecture.     Greek   and 


PREFACE 


Vll 


Roman  monuments  have  perished,  and  their  loveliness  or 
grandeur  can  be  appreciated  only  by  a  mental  process  of 
reconstruction.  Somewhat  in  the  same  way  the  stay-at- 
home  student  may  get  much  comfort  out  of  photographs 
accompanied  by  trustworthy  plans.  To  such  students, 
also,  this  book  is  offered  as  a  help  in  the  interpretation 
of  their  photographs.^ 

It  is  claimed  that  study  of  ancient  architecture  has 
been  the  ruin  of  modern  architectural  design.  There  are 
other  reasons  than  this,  why  architecture  is  not,  at  the 
close  of  the  nineteenth  century,  a  living  fine  art ;  but  it 

^  It  is  well  to  state  that  among  the  photographs  available  for  students  are 
to  be  included  the  plates  and  cuts  made  from  the  originals  by  photographic 
process  and  which  illustrate  many  recent  works.  Such  works  are :  Barock- 
und  Rococo-Architektur,  by  R.  Dohvie.  Denkmaeler  Deutscher  Renaissance, 
by  K.  E.  O.  Fritsch.  Die  Holzarchitektur  Deutschlands  vom  XIV-XVIII 
Jahrhundert,  by  Carl  Schaefer.  Architectur  der  Niederlande,  by  L.  Krook. 
Motive  der  Mittelalterlichen  Baukunst  in  Deutschland,  by  Hugo  Hartung. 
Baudenkmaeler  in  Grossbritannien,  by  C.  Uhde.  Architecture  of  the  Renais- 
sance in  England,  by  J.  A.  Gotch  and  W.  T.  Brown.  London  Churches  of 
the  Seventeenth  and  Eighteenth  Centuries,  by  G.  H: Birch  (includes  St.  Paul's 
Cathedral).  La  Normandie  Monumentale  et  Pittoresque.  La  France  Artistique 
et  Monumentale,  by  M.  H.  Havard  and  others.  Die  Baukunst  Frankreichs, 
by  C.  Gtirlitt.  L'Art  Gothique,  by  L.  Gonse.  Die  Baukunst  Spaniens,  by 
Max  Jicnghaendel.  Baudenkmaeler  in  Spanien  und  Portugal,  by  C.  Uhde. 
Die  Architektur  der  Renaissance  in  Toscana,  begun  by  a  society  in  Florence, 
carried  on  by  C.  von  Stegmann.  Palast- Architektur  von  Ober-Italien  und 
Toscana,  by  R.  Reinhardt  and  others  (especially  the  volumes  on  Genoa  and 
Venice).  Raccolta  delle  Vere  da  Pozzo  in  Venezia,  published  by  F.  Ongania 
(contains  many  views  of  courtyards).  La  Basilica  di  San  Marco  in  Venezia, 
published  by  F.  Ongania  (includes  several  hundred  photographic  plates  of 
details,  which  form  the  most  important  part  of  the  work). 

Some  of  these  works  consist  almost  wholly  of  plates  with  but  little  text ; 
others  have  half-tone  cuts  scattered  through  the  text  and  which  cannot  be 
separated  from  it. 


VUl 


PREFACE 


is  also  true  that  archaeological  study  has  been  unfavour- 
able to  the  growth  of  natural  and  original  design.  This, 
however,  is  because  the  modern  student  of  architecture 
as  an  art  to  be  practised,  has  studied  the  superficial  as- 
pects of  ancient  styles  rather  than  the  essential  nature 
of  those  styles.  Our  pseudo-Gothic  churches  and  our 
pseudo-Roman  colonnades  would  be  alike  unknown  if  it 
had  been  the  true  nature  of  second  century  and  thirteenth 
century  art  which  had  interested  the  designer  and  absorbed 
his  attention,  in  place  of  the  mere  exterior  details  which 
are  so  easy  to  copy.  It  is  to  be  urged  as  a  remedy  for 
the  modern  disease  of  borrowing  and  copying,  that  the 
true  nature  of  each  favourite  style  of  ancient  art  should 
be  made  more  familiar  to  our  practising  architects  and 
their  draughtsmen. 

August,   1896. 


TABLE    OF   CONTENTS 


INTRODUCTION 

PAGE 

Archaic  and  Prehistoric  Building xix 


CHAPTER  I 

Grecian  Architecture 


SECTION 


I.  The  Archaeology  of  the  Subject i 

II.  Doric  Buildings 3 

III.  Ionic  Buildings 22 

IV.  Corinthian  Buildings ,         .  29 

V.  Architectural  and  Figure  Sculpture           ......  36 

VI.  Exceptional  Buildings 42 

VII.  Polychromy     ...........  45 

VIII.  Dwellings 45 

IX.  Buildings  for  Amusement  and  Ceremony.     Tombs           ...  46 

X.  Picturesqueness  and  Simplicity 48 

CHAPTER   II 

Roman  Imperial  Architecture 

I.  Buildings  of  Solid  Masonry 51 

II.  Cut  Stone  with  Solid  Masonry 66 

III.  Columnar  Buildings         .........  71 

IV.  Triumphal  Arches  ..........  85 

V.  Other  Memorial  Structures 89 

VI.  Architectural  Details 92 

VII.  Buildings  of  Exceptional  Style 96 

ix 


X  CONTENTS 

SECTION  PAGE 

VIII.  The  "  Five  Orders  " loi 

IX.  Architectural  Sculpture 105 

X.  Architecture  of  Interiors 107 

XI.  Economy  of  Roman  Building 108 

XII.  Dwellings 109 

XIII.  Theatres,  Circuses,  etc iio 


CHAPTER   III 

The  Architecture  of  Europe,  350  to  750  a.d. 

I.     Building  under  New  Conditions       .         .         .         .         .         .         .112 

II.     Early  Christian  Churches 119 

III.  Inferior  Materials  and  Skill      .         .         .         .         .         .         .         .128 

IV.  Byzantine  Building 136 

V.     Byzantine  Decoration 143 

CHAPTER    IV 

The  Architecture  of  Europe,  750  to  1150  a.U. 

I.     Northern  Churches  before  II 50  A.D 147 

II.     The  Development  of  Vaulting 154 

III.  Resulting  Architectural  Forms         .         .         .         .         .         .  175 

IV.  Later  Byzantine  Buildings .181 

CHAPTER   V 

Architecture  of  Western  Europe,  1150  to  1300  a.d. 

I.     Origin  of  Gothic :  France 1 86 

II.    Provinces,  North  and  South  of  France 223 

III.  Germany         ...........  226 

IV.  England           ............  235 

V.     Italy        .        .                 245 


CONTENTS 


XI 


CHAPTER  VI 

Architecture  of  Western  Europe,  1300  to  1420  a.d. 


SECTION 

I.     France 


II.  Provinces,  North  and  South  of  France 

III.  Germany  ..... 

IV.  England           ..... 
V.  Italy 

CHAPTER  VII 
Architecture  of  Western  Europe,  1420  to  1520  a.d, 
I.     France    ...... 

II.     Provinces,  North  and  South  of  France 

III.  Germany  ..... 

IV.  .  England 

V.     Italy 


PAGE 
260 

278 

286 

296 

307 


348 

354 

357 
365 


CHAPTER   VIII 
Architecture  of  Western  Europe,  1520  to  1665  a.d. 
Prefatory  Note         ......... 

I.     France 

II.     Provinces,  North  and  South  of  France    ..... 

III.  Germany  .......... 

IV.  England 

V.     Italy 

CHAPTER   IX 
Architecture  of  Western  Europe,  1665  to  1789  a.d. 

Prefatory  Note 

I.     France    ........... 

II.     Provinces,  North  and  South  of  France 497 

III.  Germany 504 

IV.  England 516 

V.     Italy ,538 

Glossary 


389 
391 
417 
426 

437 
450 


474 
476 


Index 


547 
565 


LIST   OF    ILLUSTRATIONS    IN    THE   TEXT 


ABBREVIATIONS 

Archives :  Archives  de  la  Commission  des  Monuments  Historiques.  Art  pour  Tous  : 
Periodical  of  that  Name.  O.H.B.:  Otto  H.  Bacher.  Billings'  Carlisle  :  Architectural  Illus- 
trations of  Carlisle  Cathedral,  by  R.  W.  BiUings.  Billings'  D.  Cath. :  Architectural  Illustra- 
tions of  the  Cathedral  Church  at  Durham,  by  R,  W.  Billings.  Billings'  D.  Co. :  Illustrations 
of  the  Architectural  Antiquities  of  the  County  of  Durham,  by  R.  W.  Billings.  Britton  :  Archi- 
tectural Antiquities  of  Great  Britain,  by  John  Britton.  Boetticher :  Die  Tektonik  der  Hellenen, 
von  Karl  Boetticher.  Bunsen  :  Die  Basiliken  des  Christlichen  Roms,  by  Gutensohn  &  Knapp, 
Illustrating  Bunsen's  Work.  Choisy :  L'Art  de  B^tir  chez  les  Romains,  par  A.  Choisy. 
Cicogn. :  Le  Fabbriche  e  I  Monumenti  Conspicui  di  Venezia,  illustrati  da  L.  Cicognara,  etc. 
Come  :  Archaeologische  Untersuchungen  auf  Samothrake,  von  Alexander  Conze,  Alois  Hauser 
und  Otto  Benndorf.  S.  C. :  Sebastien  Cruset.  Dartein  :  Etudes  sur  I'Architecture  Lombarde, 
par  F.  de  Dartein.  D.  iSf  D. :  Histoire  de  la  Sainte  Chapelle  du  Palais,  par  MM.  Decloux  & 
Doury.  De  G. :  Itin6raire  Arch6ologique  de  Paris,  par  M.  F.  de  Guilhermy.  Durelli :  La 
Certosa  di  Pavia  descritta  .  .  .,  dai  Fratelli  Gaetano  e  Francesco  Durelli.  Dunn  :  Construc- 
tive und  Polychrome  Details  der  Griechischen  Baukunst  .  .  .,  von  Josef  Durm.  Ency. : 
Encyclopedic  d'Architecture  (a  periodical  begun  in  1872).  Enlart :  Origines  Franfaises  de 
I'Architecture  Gothique  en  Italie,  par  C.  Enlart.  Entretiens :  Entretiens  sur  L' Architecture, 
par  Vit)llet-le-Duc.  Fergusson :  A  History  of  Architecture  in  All  Countries,  by  James  Fergus- 
son.  Foerster :  Denkmale  Deutscher  Baukunst  .  .  .,  von  Ernst  Foerster.  France  Artistique  : 
La  France  Artistique  et  Monumentale  .  .  .,  de  M.  Henry  Havard.  Gailh.:  Monuments 
Anciens  et  Modernes,  par  Jules  Gailhabaud.  Gailh.  D.  B. :  L'Art  dans  Les  Diverses  Branches 
.  .  .,  par  Jules  Gailhabaud.  yf. 71/.  G.  .•  Miss  Alice  M.  Gamble.  Gruner :  Specimens  of  Orna- 
mental Art  .  .  .,  by  Lewis  Gruner.  Handbuch  :  Handbuch  der  Architektur  (Darmstadt,  1881, 
etc.).  Isabelle  :  Les  Edifices  Circulaires  et  les  Domes  .  .  .,  par  M.  E.  Isabelle.  King :  The 
Study  Book  of  Mediaeval  Architecture  and  Art  .  .  .,  by  Thomas  H.  King.  Laspeyres :  Die 
Kirchen  der  Renaissance  in  Mittel-Italien  .  .  .,  von  Paul  Laspeyres.  Lenoir :  Architecture 
Monastique,  par  M.  Albert  Lenoir.  Le  Ta. :  Edifices  de  Rome  Moderne,  par  P.  Le  Tarouilly. 
Mallay :  Essai  sur  Les  Eglises  Romanes  .  .  .,  du  Puy-de-Dome,  par  M.  Mallay.  Martha  : 
Manuel  d'Archeologie  Etrusque  et  Romaine,  par  Jules  Martha.  E.  J.  M. :  E.  J.  Meeker. 
Prentice :  Renaissance  Architecture  and  Ornament  in  Spain  .  .  .,  by  Andrew  N,  Prentice. 
Rohault :  La  Toscane  au  Moyen  Age  .  .  .,  par  Georges  Rohault  de  Fleury.  ^.-/?.  .■  L' Archi- 
tecture Normande  .  .  .,  par  V.  Ruprich-Robert.  Salz. :  Alt-Christliche  Baudenkmale  von 
Constantinopel  .  .  .,  von  W.  Salzenberg.  Sauvageot :  Palais,  Chateaux,  Hotels,  et  Maisons 
de  France  .  .  .,  par  Claude  Sauvageot.  Schaefer :  Die  Holzarchitektur  Deutschlands  .  .  ., 
von  Carl  Schaefer.  E.  H.  S. :  E.  H.  Schutt.  Shajo :  Architectural  Sketches  from  the  Continent, 
by  Richard  Norman  Shaw.  D.  N.  B.  S. :  Danford  N.  B.  Sturgis.  Street :  Some  Account  of 
Gothic  Architecture  in  Spain,  by  George  Edmund  Street.  Stuart:  Antiquities  of  Athens  .  .  ., 
by  James  Stuart  and  Nicholas  Revett.     V.-le-D. :    Dictionnaire  Raisonn6  de  I'Architecture 

xiii 


XIV 


ILLUSTRATIONS   IN   THE   TEXT 


Fran9aise  .  .  .,  par  Viollet-le-Duc.  Vo^iie  :  Syrie  Centrale  ;  Architecture,  Civile  et  Religieuse, 
par  le  Comte  de  Vogii6.  Willis:  On  the  Construction  of  the  Vaults  of  the  Middle  Ages,  by 
R.  Willis  [in  the  Transactions  of  the  Royal  Institute  of  British  Architects  for  1842]. 


FIG. 

I. 

'^ 

3- 
4- 

5- 

6. 

7- 
8. 

9- 
10. 
II. 
12. 

13- 
14. 

15- 
16. 

17- 
18. 
19. 
20. 
21. 
22. 

23- 
24. 
25. 
26. 
27. 
28. 
29. 

30. 
31- 
32. 
33- 
34- 
35- 
36. 
37. 


Athens,  Theseion,  plan 

Athens,  Theseion,  exterior.     Drawn  by  D.  A".  B.  S. 

Paestum,  Temple  of  Poseidon,  interior.     Drawn  by  D.  N.  B.  S. 

Athens,  Parthenon,  plan 

Athens,  Parthenon  and  Olympia,  Temple  of  Zeus ;  two  fronts  on 
scale 

Eleusis,  Temple  of  Artemis,  plan 

Athens,  Propylaia,  plan 

Athens,  Propylaia,  sectional  perspective.     Drawn  by  D.  N.  B. 

Corner  of  a  Doric  Temple.     Drawn  by  D.  N.  B.  S. 

Construction  of  a  Doric  Temple.     Drawn  by  D.  N.  B 

Athens,  Doric  Cap,  indications  of  colour.     Drawn  by  E.  H.  S. 

Outlines  of  Different  Doric  Capitals     . 

Ionic  Capital  at  Athens.     Drawn  hy  D.  JV.  B.  S. 

Athens,  Erechtheion,  plan 

Athens.  Erechtheion,  elevation  of  order.     Direct  from  Boetticher 

Ionic  Corner  Capital,  plan     ..... 

Ionic  Corner  Capital,  from  within.     Direct  from  Durnt 

Corner  of  an  Ionic  Temple.     Drawn  by  D.  N.  B.  S. 

Athens,  Lysikrates'  Monument.     Drawn  by  D.  N.  B.  S. 

Athens,  Lysikrates'  Monument,  restoration  of  top.     Direct  from  Stuart 

Epidauros,  Corinthian  Capital.     Drawn  by  D.  N.  B.  S. 

Corinthian  Capital.     Direct  from  Boetticher 

Corinthian  Capital.     Direct  from  Boetticher 

Samothrace,  the  Arsinoeion.     Direct  from  Conze 

Athens,  Erechtheion,  Caryatid  Portico.       Drawn  by  D.  N.  B.  S 

Athens,  Throne  in  Theatre.     Direct  from  Handbuch 

Akragas,  Temple  of  Zeus,  plan     .... 

Rome,  Pantheon,  interior.     Direct  from  Isabelle 

Rome,  Thermae  of  Caracalla,  interior.     Drawn  by  E.  H.  S.  after  Viol- 
let-le-Duc ....... 

Rome,  S.  M.  degli  Angeli,  interior.     Drawn  by  5".  C. 

Nimes,  Nymphaeum,  interior.     Drawn  by  D.  N.  B.  S 

Nimes,  Nymphaeum,  detail.     Direct  from  Choisy 

Musmiyeh,  Pretorium,  interior.     Direct  from  Vog'iU 

Rome,  Trajan's  Forum  and  Basilica  Ulpia,  restored  plan 

Cori,  So-called  Temple  of  Hercules,  front.     Direct  from  Gailh. 

Nimes,  Maison  Carree.     Direct  from  Martha 

Baalbek,  Temple  of  Jupiter,  plan 


ILLUSTRATIONS   IN  THE  TEXT 


XV 


FIG. 

38. 

39- 
40. 
41. 

42. 

43- 
44. 

45- 
46. 

47- 
48. 
49. 
50. 

51- 

52. 

53- 

54- 

55- 
56. 

57- 
58. 

59- 
60. 
61. 
62. 

63- 
64. 

65. 
66. 
67. 
68. 
69. 
70. 

71- 
72. 

m- 

74- 

75- 
76. 


Baalbek,  Temple  of  Jupiter,  interior.  Drawn  by  D.  N.  B.  S. 
Palmyra,  Part  of  Great  Colonnade.  Drawn  by  D.  N.  B.  S. 
Restoration  of  Roman  Temple  with  Portico.  Direct  from  Entretiens 
Saint  Chamas,  Roman  Bridge,  with  two  arches.  Drawn  by  D.  N.  B.  S 
Benevento,  Arch  of  Trajan.  Drawn  by  D.  N.  B.  S.  . 
Saint  Remy,  Monument.  Drawn  by  D.  AF.  B.  S. 
Rome,  Theatre  of  Marcellus,  detail.  Direct  from  Entretiens 
Rome,  Arch  6i  Constantine,  detail.  Drawn  by  D.  N.  B.  S. 
Saintes,  Roman  Gateway.  Drawn  by  D.  TV.  B.  S. 
Athens,  Arch  of  Hadrian.  Drawn  by  D.  N.  B.  S. 
Lambese,  Pretorium.  Drawn  by  D.  N.  B.  S.  . 
Spalato,  Palace  of  Diocletian,  arcade.  Drawn  by  D.  N.  B.  S. 
Composite  Capital.  Drawn  by  D.  N".  B.  S. 
Capital  with  Figure,  Lateran  Museum.  Drawn  by  D.  2V.  B.  S. 
Capital  with  Rams,  Lateran  Museum.  Drawn  by  D.  JV.  B.  S. 
Composite  Ionic  Capital  from  Temple  of  Saturn.  Drawn  by 
D.  N.  B.  S. 


Panel  of  Leafage,  Lateran  Museum.     Drawn  by  D.  JV.  B.  S. 
Kalb  Louzeh,  Interior  of  Church.     Direct  from  VogYii 
Deir  Siman,  Triumphal  Arch.     Direct  from  VogiU 
Serjilla,  Two  Columns  from  the  Church.     Direct  from  Vogiii 
Kalat  Siman,  Apse  of  Church.      Direct  from  Vogiie     . 
Rome,  Basilica  of  S.  John  Lateran,  plan       .... 
Rome,  Basilica  of  S.  Clemente,  interior. 
Rome,  Church  of  S.  Costanza,  plan 
Rome,  Church  of  S.  Costanza,  interior. 
Nocera,  Church  of  S.  M.  de  la  Rotonda, 


Direct  from  Bunsen 


Direct  from  Isabelle 
Direct  from  Isabelle 


Rome,  Basilica  of  S.  Lorenzo  Fuori  le  Mura,  interior.  Direct 
Bunsen     .......... 

Biella,  Chapel.     Direct  from  Dartein  .... 

Montmajour,  Chapel.     Direct  from  V.-le-D. 

Cividale,  Church  of  S.  M.  in  Valle,  interior.     Direct  from  Gailh 

Constantinople,  Church  of  H.  Sophia,  plan  .... 

Constantinople,  Church  of  H.  Sophia,  section.     Direct  from  Salz 

Aix-la-Chapelle,  Chapel,  plan.     Direct  from  Dartein    . 

Saint  Saturnin  and  Querqueville,  plans  of  chapels.     Direct  from 

Vignory,  Church,  plan.     Direct  from  V.-le-D. 

Vignory,  Church,  interior.     Drawn  by  A.  M.  G. 

Clermont-Ferrand,  Church  of  N.  D.  du  Port,  section.  Direct 
V.-le-D 


Poitiers,  Baptistery.     Direct  from  Archives 
Clermont-Ferrand,  Church  of  N.  D.  du  Port,  plan. 


from 


Lenoir 


from 


Direct  from  Mallay     1 54 


XVI 


ILLUSTRATIONS   IN  THE  .TEXT 


FIG. 

78. 

79- 
80. 

81. 
82. 

83- 
84. 
85. 
86. 
87. 
88. 
89. 
90. 
91. 
92. 

93- 

94. 

95- 
96. 

97- 
98. 
99. 

100. 

loi. 

102. 

103. 

104. 

105. 

106. 

107. 

108. 

109. 

no. 

III. 

112. 

113- 


Clermont-Ferrand,  Church  of  N.  D.  du  Port,  vaulting  of  choir-aisle 
Direct  from  V.-le-D. 

Clermont-Ferrand,  Church  of  N.  D.  du  Port,  plan  of  vaults.  Drawn  by 
E.H.S. 

P^rigueux,  Church  of  S.  Front,  plan.     Direct  from  Handbicch     . 

P^rigueux,  Church  of  S.  Front,  interior.     Drawn  by  E.  H.  S.  after 


Gailh. 


Diagrams  of  Vaulting.     Drawn  by  E.  H.  S. 
V^zelay,  Abbey  Church,  aisle.     Drawn  by  D.  N.  B.  S. 
Diagrams,  plan  and  undersurface  of  vaulting.      Drawn  by  E.  H.  S 
Diagrams,  plan  and  undersurface  of  vaulting.      Drawn  by  E.  H.  S. 
Diagram  of  Vaulting.     Direct  from  V.-le-D. 
Diagram,  plan  of  vaulting.     Drawn  by  E.  H.  S. 
Diagram,  plan  of  vaulting.     Drawn  by  E.  H.  S. 
Romanesque  Vaulting,  view.     Drawn  by  E.  H.  S. 
Diagram  of  Vaulting.     Drawn  by  E.  H.  S. 
Milan,  Church  of  S.  Ambrogio,  partial  section.     Direct  from  R.-R. 
Pavia,  Church  of  S.  Michele,  one  bay  of  nave.     Direct  from  R.-R. 
Spires,  Cathedral,  two  bays  of  nave.     Direct  from  (Ja////.  . 
Vdzelay,  Abbey  Church,  nave.     Drawn  by  D.  N.  B.  S. 
Peterborough,  Cathedral,  partial  plan.     Direct  from  R.-R. 
Peterborough,  Cathedral,  interior.     Drawn  by  E.  J.  M.     . 
Tournai,  Cathedral,  group  of  towers.     Drawn  by  S.  C. 
Durham,  Cathedral,  Galilee.     Direct  from  Billings'  D.  Cath. 
Aries,  Church  of  S.  Trophime,  cloister.     Direct  from  V.-le-D.    . 
Vendome,  Tower  of  Church.     Direct  from  V.-le-D.    . 
Vernouillet,  Tower  of  Church.     Direct  from  V.-le-D. 
Constantinople,  Church  of  Theotokos,  plan.     Direct  from  Salz. 
Constantinople,  Church  of  Theotokos,  elevation.     Direct  from  Salz. 
Diagram,  plan  of  vaulting.     Drawn  by  E.  H.  S. 
Romanesque  Vault.     Direct  from  V.-le-D. 
Diagram  of  Vaulting.     Drawn  by  E.  H.  S. 
Skeleton  of  Vaulting  Ribs.     Drawn  by  E.  H.  S. 
Rib  and  Shell  of  Gothic  Vault.     Drawn  by  E.  H.  S. 
Skeleton  of  Vaulting  Ribs.     Direct  from  V.-le-D. 
Scheme  of  Shell  of  Gothic  Vault.     Direct  from  V.-le-D. 
Scheme  of  Shell  of  Gothic  Vault.     Direct  from  V.-le-D. 
Diagram  Plan,  sexpartite  vault.     Drawn  by  E.  H.  S. 
Skeleton  of  Ribs,  sexpartite  vault.     Direct  from  V.-le-D 
Diagram,  alternative   arrangement   of  vaulting  spaces.      Drawn  by 
E.  H.S. 


114.   Diagram,  two  pointed  arches.     Drawn  by  E.  H.  S. 


ILLUSTRATIONS   IN  THE  TEXT 


XVI 1 


-le-D 


115.  Diagram  plan,  Gothic  church  without  aisles.     Drawn  by  E.  H.  S. 

116.  Diagram,  flying  buttress  construction.     Drawn  by  £".  ^.  6". 

117.  Reims,  Church  of  S.  Remy,  buttress  system.     Direct  from  Alr'w^ 

118.  Soissons,  Cathedral,  interior  of  S.  transept.     Direct  from  V.-le-D. 

119.  Diagram,  comparative  sections.     Drawn  by  E.  H.  S.  . 

120.  Noyon,  Cathedral,  plan.     Direct  from  V.-le-D.    . 

121.  Noyon,  Cathedral,  interior.     Drawn  by  E.  J.  M. 

122.  Paris,  Sainte  Chapelle,  exterior.     Direct  from  D.  fir*  D 

123.  Reims,  Cathedral,  window.     Direct  from  V.-le-D. 

124.  Paris,  Sainte  Chapelle,  one  bay.     Direct  from  V.-le-D. 

125.  Paris,  Cathedral,  gable.     Direct  from  V.-le-D. 
\i(i.  Paris,  Cathedral,  N.  door  of  W.  front.     Direct  from  V.-le-D. 

127.  Scheme  of  a  Gothic  Cathedral.     Direct  from  F.-Z^-Z?. 

128.  Reims,  Restoration  of  House  of  the  Musicians.     Direct  from  K 

129.  Magdeburg,  Cathedral,  interior  of  choir.     Drawn  by  E.  J.  M. 

130.  Magdeburg,  Cathedral,  doorway.     Drawn  by  E.  y.  M. 

131.  Treves,  Church  of  Liebfrauen  Kirche,  plan.     Direct  from  Gailh 

132.  Freiburg,  Minster,  two  bays  of  S.  flank.     Direct  from  King 

133.  Lincoln,  Cathedral,  plan  of  choir  vaulting.     Drawn  by  E.  H.  S. 

134.  Lincoln,  Cathedral,  plan  of  nave  vaulting. 

135.  Lincoln,  Cathedral,  view  of  nave  vaulting. 

136.  Carlisle,  Cathedral,  part  of  N.  choir  aisle. 

lisle 

137.  Salisbury,  Cathedral,  tomb  of  Bishop  Giles.     Direct  from  Gailh. 

138.  Fossanova,  Chapter-House.     Drawn  by  E.J.  M. 
138  A.  Fossanova,  Refectory.     Drawn  hy  E.  y.  M.      . 

139.  Santa  Maria  d'  Arbona.     Drawn  by  E.  y.  M.  after  Enlart . 

140.  Florence,  Church  of  S.  Maria  Novella,  nave.     Drawn  by  E.  y.  M. 

141.  Verona,  Church  of  S.  Anastasia,  one  bay.     Drawn  by  D.  N.  B.  S. 

after  Gruner 

142.  Verona,  Church  of  S.  Anastasia,  exterior.     Drawn  by  D.  N.  B.  S. 

143.  Assisi,  Church  of  S.  Francesco,  one  bay.     Direct  from  Gailh.     . 

144.  Rouen,  Church  of  S.  Ouen,  plan.     Direct  from  V.-le-D. 

145.  Carcassonne,  Cathedral,  N.  front.     Direct  from  France  Artistiqiie 

146.  Reims,  Cathedral,  window  of  nave.     Direct  from  V.-le-D.   . 

147.  Paris,  Cathedral,  window  of  chapel.     Direct  from  K-/<?-Z>. 

148.  Troyes,  Church  of  S.  Urbain,  diagram  of  window  tracery.     Direct 

from  V.-le-D 

Carcassonne,  Cathedral,  window.     Direct  from  V.-le-D. 

Rouen,  Cathedral,  pierced  gable  of  N.  transept  door.     Direct   from 


Drawn  by  E.  H.  S. 
Drawn  by  E.  y.  M. 
Direct  from  Billings'  Car 


149 
150 


V.-le-D. 


151.   Chateaudun,  Front  and  plan  of  house.     Direct  from  V.-le-D. 


xviii  ILLUSTRATIONS    IN  THE  TEXT 

FIG. 

152.  Troyes,  Chapel  of  S.  Gilles,  detail  of  framing.     Direct  from  V.-le-D 

153.  Toledo,  Cathedral,  plan  of  apse.     Direct  from  ^/rtv/ 

154.  Toledo.  Cathedral,  outer  aisle  of  choir.     Drawn  by  E.  J.  M. 

155.  Vilvorde,  Church,  plan.     Direct  from  King  .... 

156.  Vilvorde,  Church,  section.     Direct  from  A'/;/^     .... 

157.  Antwerp,  Cathedral,  section.     Direct  from /T/V/g' 

158.  Oppenheim,  Church  of  S.  Katharine,  detail  of  S.  flank.     Direct  from 

Foerster 

159.  Nuremburg,  Church  of  S.  Sebaldus,  E.  end.     Direct  from  Foerster 

160.  Erfurt,  Cathedral,  plan.     Direct  from  King  .... 

161.  Erfurt,  Cathedral,  exterior.     Direct  from  King    .... 

162.  Vienna,  Cathedral,  plan.     Direct  from  Foerster  .... 

163.  Lincoln,  Cathedral,  central  tower.     Direct  from  Britton 

164.  Beverley,  Minster,  one  bay,  exterior  and  interior.     Direct  from  Brit 

ton 

164  A.    Carlisle,  Cathedral,  E.  window.     Direct  ivom.  Billings^  Carlisle 

165.  Staindrop,  Church,  choir.     Direct  from  Billings''  D.  Co. 

165  A.   Ely,  Cathedral,  plan  of  vaulting  of  octagon.     Drawn  by  E.  H.  S. 

166.  Durham,  Cathedral,  detail  of  vaulting.    Direct  from  Billings''  D.  Cath 

166  A.    London,  Westminster  Hall,  roof 

166  B.   Plans  of  three  churches  compared.     Drawn  by  £". //I  5.  . 

167.  Bologna,  Church  of  S.  Petronio,  detail  of  interior.     Drawn  by  E.  J.  M. 

168.  Florence,  Cathedral,  part  of  interior.     Direct  from  Gailh.    . 

168  A.    Lucca,  Cathedral,  part  of  interior.    Drawn  by  E.  H.  S.  after  Shaw 

169.  Florence,  Loggia  dei  Lanzi,  interior.     Direct  from  ^^/;a«// 

170.  Venice,  Ducal  Palace,  detail  of  fa9ade.     Direct  from  Cicogn. 

171.  Verona,  Tomb  of  Mastino  II.     Drawn  by  E.  y.  M.     . 

172.  Paris,  Church  of  S.  Germain  TAuxerrois.     Direct  from  De  G. 

173.  Narbonne,  Cathedral,  detail  of  pier.     Direct  from  V.-le-D. 

174.  Rouen,  Church  of  S.  Maclou,  gables  of  porch.     Drawn  by  A.  M.  G. 

175.  Evreux,  Cathedral,  buttress.     Direct  from  V.-le-D. 

176.  Narbonne,  Cathedral,  detail  of  cloister.     Direct  from  V.-le-D.    . 

177.  Avioth,  Chapel,  plan.     Direct  from  V.-le-D 

178.  Avioth,  Chapel,  exterior.     Direct  from  V.-le-D 

179.  Albi,  Cathedral,  S.  porch.     Direct  from  V.-le-D. 

180.  Tours,  Cathedral,  central  doorway.     Direct  from  V.-le-D. 

181.  Eu,  Church,  pendant  of  vaulting  rib.     Direct  from  K-/^-Z). 

182.  Troyes,  Church  of  S.  Madeleine,  jubd.     Direct  from  6^a//A. 

183.  Paris,  Hotel  de  Cluny,  plan.     Direct  from  V.-le-D. 

184.  Paris,  Hotel  de  Cluny,  exterior.     Direct  from  V.-le-D. 

185.  Rouen,  Front  of  house.     Direct  from  V.-le-D 

186.  Valladolid,  Church  of  S.  Gregorio,  cloister  door.     Drawn  by  E.  y.  M. 


ILLUSTRATIONS   IN   THE  TEXT 


XIX 


187.  Guadalajara,  Courtyard  of  a  palace.     Drawn  by  £".  7.  i^.    . 

188.  Hanover,  Rathhaus.     Drawn  by  A.  M.  G. 

189.  Taunton,  Church  of  S.  M.  Magdalen,  tower.     Direct  from  Britton 
1 89  A.   Warwick,  the  Beauchamp  Chapel.     Direct  from  ^r///<7«  . 

190.  Oxford,  Christ  Church  College  Hall,  vestibule.     Drawn  by  E.J.  M. 

191.  Windsor,  S.  George's  Chapel,  vaulting.     Direct  from  Willis 

192.  Florence,  Pazzi  Chapel.     Drawn  by  .^.  ^.  G^ 

193.  Mantua,  Church  of  S.  Andrea,  plan.     Drawn  by  E.  H.  S.   . 

194.  Certosa,  near  Pavia,  detail.     Direct  from  Dnrelli 

195.  Relief  Arabesque.     Tixx^zX  ixovsx  Art  pour  Tons   .... 

196.  Venice,  Church  of  S.  Zaccaria,  front.     Direct  from  Cicogn. 

197.  Diagram  Plan,  Renaissance  Church.     Drawn  by  E.  H.  S. 

198.  Venice,  Church  of  S.  Fantino,  interior.     Drawn  by  S.  C.     . 

199.  Cortona,  Church  of  S.  M.  Nuova,  plan.     Direct  from  Laspeyres 

200.  Montepulciano,  Church  of  S.  Biagio,  plan.     Direct  from  Laspeyres 

201.  Rome,  Palazzo  Stoppani,  front.     Direct  from  Le  Tarouilly  . 

202.  Chateau  of  Chambord,  central  mass.     Direct  from  Gailh.    . 

203.  Blois,  Chateau,  stairway  tower  of  Francois  I.     Direct  from  Archives 

204.  Bussy-le-Grand,  Chateau,  detail.     Direct  from  Smivageot    . 

205.  Varengeville,  Manoir  d'Ango,  detail.     Drawn  by  A.  M.  G. 

206.  Rouen,  Front  of  house.     Direct  from  Gailh.         .... 

207.  Ecouen,  Chateau,  detail.     Drawn  \)y  A.  M.  G 

208.  Nogent-sur-Seine,  Church,  detail.     Direct  from  Gailh.  D.  B. 

209.  Paris,  Church  of  S.  Etienne  du  Mont,  front.     Direct  from  De  G. 

210.  Paris,  Church  of  S.  Etienne  du  Mont,  interior.     Direct  from  Encyc 

211.  Tillieres,  Church,  roof  of  choir.     'Dirtct  irom  Encyc.   . 

212.  Tillieres,  Church,  diagram  plan.     Drawn  by  E.  H.  S. 

213.  Moulins,  Hospital,  part  of  front.     Direct  from  Gailh.  D.  B. 

214.  Paris,  Luxembourg,  pavilion.     Drawn  by  E.  H.  S. 

215.  Paris,  Church  of  S.  Roch,  interior.     Drawn  by  E.  y.  M. 

216.  Antwerp,  Church  of  S.  Charles  Borromeo,  tower.     Drawn  by  E.  J.  M. 

217.  Avila,  Casa  Polentina,  detail.     Direct  from  Prentice    . 

218.  Granada,  Palace  of  Charles  V.,  detail.     Drawn  by  E.  y.  M. 

219.  Hildesheim,  Wooden  house.     Direct  from  Schaefer 

220.  Danzig,  Zeughaus,  detail.     Drawn  by  E.  H.  S. 

221.  Cologne,  Rathhaus,  porch.     Direct  from  Gailh.  . 

222.  Ratisbon,  Rathhaus,  doorway.     Drawn  by  E.  y.  M. 

223.  Munich,  Church  of  S.  Michael,  interior.     Drawn  by  E.  y.  M. 

224.  Bramshill,  Manor  House,  detail.     Drawn  by  S.  C. 

225.  Wollaton  House,  one  tower.     Drawn  by  E.  H.  S. 

226.  Gainford  Hall,  doorway.     Direct  from  Billings''  D.  Co 

227.  Moreton  Old  Hall,  detail.     Drawn  by  O.  H.  B.  . 


XX 


ILLUSTRATIONS   IN  THE  TEXT 


Direct  from  Gailh.     . 
Direct  from  Art  pour  Tons 
Drawn  by  E.  H.  S.  . 

Drawn  by  E.  H.  S.     . 

detail.     Drawn  by  £"./.  yJ/. 


FIG. 

228.  Venice,  Palazzo  Widman.     Drawn  by  A.  M.  G 

229.  Venice,  Scuola  di  S.  Rocco.     Drawn  by  S.  C. 

230.  Vicenza,  Palazzo  Thiene.     Drawn  by  S.  C 
230  A.    Vicenza,  Villa  Rotonda.     Drawn  by  S.  C. 

231.  Rome,  Church  of  S.  Peter,  partial  plan.     'Direct  irora.  Gailh 

232.  Rome,  church  of  S.  Peter,  N.  front.     Direct  from  Gailh. 

233.  Rome,  Palazzo  dei  Consei-vatori.     Drawn  by  6".  C.     . 

234.  Versailles,  Chapel  of  Chateau,  interior.     Drawn  by  E.  y.  M. 

235.  Paris,  Minist^re  de  la  Marine.     Drawn  by  E.  J.  M. 

236.  Paris,  Church  of  the  Invalides. 

237.  Paris,  Hdtel  Soubise,  interior. 

238.  Paris,  Hotel  Soubise,  pavilion. 

239.  Antwerp,  Doorway  of  a  court. 

240.  Louvain,  Church  of  S.  Michael 

241.  Zaragoza,  Old  Cathedral,  tower.     Drawn  by  E.  y.  M. 

242.  Madrid,  Palace,  detail.     Drawn  by  E.  H.  S. 

243.  Zurich,  Town  Hall,  detail.     Drawn  by  E.  y.  M. 

244.  Magdeburg,  Rathhaus,  detail.     Drawn  by  A.  M.  G.     . 

245.  Dresden,  Catholic  Court  Church,  detail.     Drawn  by  E.  y. 

246.  Bruchsal  Schloss,  interior.     Direct  from  Arl  pour  Tous 

247.  Stuttgart,  Schloss,  "  Solitude."     Drawn  by  S.  C. 

248.  Munich,  Street  Front.     Drawn  by  O.  H.  B. 

249.  London,  Temple  Bar.     Drawn  by  E.  y.  M. 

250.  London,  Church  of  S.  Mary  le  Bow,  steeple. 

251.  London,  Church  of  S.  Paul,  partial  section. 

252.  London,  Church  of  S.  Paul,  W.  front  detail. 

253.  London,  Church  of  S.  Mary  le  Strand,  steeple.      Drawn  by  E.  y.  M. 

254.  London,  Somerset  House,  vestibule.     Direct  from  a  print 

255.  Venice,  Palazzo  Grassi.     Drawn  by  S.  C. 

256.  Rome,  Piazza  di  S.  Pietro,  colonnade.     Drawn  by  E.  y.  M. 


M. 


Drawn  by  E.  y.  M. 
Direct  from  Gailh. 
Drawn  by  E.  y.  M. 


455 
461 

463 
465 
466 
467 
472 

483 

486 

489 
494 
495 
497 
499 
500 

503 
506 
508 
512 
513 
514 
515 
519 
520 

523 
527 

532 

536 
540 

543 


LIST   OF   PLATES 


I.  Angouleme:  Cathedral,  west  front  . 

II.  Salisbury:  Cathedral,  from  the  southwest 

III.  Rouen:  Church  of  S.  Ouen,  from  the  southeast 

IV.  Florence  :  Cathedral,  part  of  south  flank 
V.  Antwerp  :  Cathedral,  spire 

VI .  Louvain  :  Town  Hall       .... 

VII.  Valladolid:  Church  of  S.  Pablo,  west  front 

VIII.  Cambridge:  King's  College  Chapel,  interior 

IX.  Venice  :  Old  Library  of  S.  Mark,  part  of  front 

X.  Illustrations  of  term  "  Arch  "  in  Glossary,  drawn  by  E.  H.  S. 


TO   FACE   PAGE 
178 

238 

262 

318 

348 

348 

35° 
364 
456 
548 


INTRODUCTION 


ARCHAIC   AND   PREHISTORIC   BUILDING 

This  book  is  devoted  to  the  study  of  those  ancient 
styles  of  decorative  building  which  have  most  powerfully 
influenced  later  styles,  and  to  those  later  styles  them- 
selves ;  down  to  the  present  epoch,  in  which  no  style 
prevails.  It  is  a  brief  sketch  of  the  history  of  European 
architecture,  of  its  often  repeated  progress  and  decline, 
and  of  a  new  progress  and  decline  in  the  fifteenth  and 
following  centuries  which  were  in  many  ways  unique. 
The  record  begins  with  the  Greek  buildings  of  Doric 
style ;  but  there  are  some  few  vestiges  of  earlier  ways 
of  building  and  of  adorning  buildings  which  must  be 
mentioned. 

Architecture  is  what  is  known  as  a  decorative  art;  that 
is,  it  cojisists  in  applying  fine  art  to  certain  objects  of 
utility  —  in  this  case  to  buildings.  Therefore  mere  rough 
walls  used  for  enclosure,  or  to  retain  and  support  loose 
earth,  massive  and  permanent  military  buildings,  roads 
and  bridges,  however  skilfully  and  well  built,  are  not 
architecture  in  the  strict  sense.  When  we  have  no  other 
remains  of  a  lost  civilization,  we  have  to  study  such  rough 


XXiv  INTRODUCTION 

and  unarchitectural  remains.  These  forgotten  styles  of 
building,  however,  have  had  little  immediate  influence  on 
later  architecture,  so  far  as  can  be  traced. 

Near  the  eastern  shore  of  the  Morea  are  two  low  hills 
on  the  tops  of  which  have  been  discovered  extensive  ruins. 
These  have  been  identified  with  the  ancient  Greek  cities 
Tiryns  and  Mykenai,  the  latter  of  which  we  know  from 
Homer  as  the  capital  of  Atreus  and  Agamemnon,  and  the 
former  as  the  still  older  and  more  mythical  city  of  Perseus. 
Both  these  towns  existed  still  in  the  historical  era,  as 
unimportant  towns,  but  the  vestiges  on  the  hilltops  are  of 
an  epoch  far  older  than  even  the  early  days  of  Peisistratos 
or  of  Solon.  We  are  left  to  suppose  that  in  each  case 
the  later  city  was  built  in  the  plain  or  on  the  lower  hill- 
sides, while  the  ancient  fortress  remained  the  citadel,  its 
palace-interior  perhaps  dismantled,  but  its  defences  kept 
in  condition.  Both  cities  were  deserted  in  the  fifth  cen- 
tury B.C.  The  ruins  have  been  studied,  those  of  Tiryns 
with  especial  care  and  knowledge,  and  much  that  is 
curious  has  been  well  established,  although  there  is  much 
more  that  might  be  done  if  money  could  be  had  for  fur- 
ther exploration. 

At  Tiryns  a  castle,  built  with  walls  of  prodigious  thick- 
ness and  a  very  elaborate  system  of  flanking  projections 
and  angles  for  better  defence,  contained  a  series  of  halls, 
rooms,  passages,  and  stately  gateways,  the  whole  forming 
such  a  palace  as  a  king  of  the  Homeric  poems  might  well 
have  possessed.  Traces  of  columns,  probably  wooden 
ones,  show  where  the  roof  of  a  large  room  was  supported, 
and  a  fire-hearth  in  the  middle,  taken  in  connection  with 


ARCHAIC  AND   PREHISTORIC   BUILDING  XXV 

those  posts,  shows  where  a  raised  part  of  the  roof  must 
have  let  off  the  smoke  through  louvres.  A  heavy  thresh- 
old still  in  place  shows,  by  the  round  holes  in  it  and  the 
marks  of  swinging  doors,  that  those  doors  were  supported 
by  pivots  at  top  and  bottom  and  not  hung  on  hinges. 

At  Mykenai,  and  at  other  points  in  Greece,  are  several 
round  chambers  roofed,  or  rather  closed  at  top,  by  means 
of  courses  of  stone  successively  overlapping  one  another, 
and  projecting  inward ;  corbelled  out,  as  modern  build- 
ers say;  each  ring  of  stones  smaller  than  the  one  below, 
and  the  uppermost  ring  covered  by  a  single  stone.  These 
are  all  meant  to  be  buried  in  the  earth ;  they  have  there- 
fore no  exterior  design,  no  walls,  only  a  decorative  door- 
way to  which  a  narrow  passage  leads.  The  largest  of 
these  has  been  known  for  centuries;  it  is  the  so-called 
"Treasury  of  Atreus";  and,  like  the  others,  is  undoubt- 
edly a  tomb.  Such  structures  are  found  also  in  Italy,  in 
islands  of  the  Mediterranean,  in  Scotland  and  the  Scot- 
tish islands,  and  in  Mexico;  they  are  not  in  themselves 
important  to  students  of  architecture;  but  the  great 
Mykenai  tomb  chamber  is  nearly  fifty  feet  in  diameter, 
and  fragments  of  a  once  rich  architectural  doorway  point 
to  a  developed  and  decidedly  Asiatic  style  of  decoration. 
With  this  structure  is  to  be  associated  a  lining  or  interior 
ornamentation  of  some  material  once  held  in  place  by 
nails  whose  holes  may  be  seen ;  it  is  generally  thought 
to  have  been  bronze.  The  famous  Gate  of  the  Lions,  not 
far  away,  and  affording  entrance  to  the  enclosure  of  the 
Acropolis,  is  probably  later,  though  still  very  early  in 
date.     In  the  Tiryns  ruins  fragments  of    blue  glass  im- 


xxvi  INTRODUCTION 

bedded  in  marble  slabs  have  been  found.  All  the  evi- 
dence points  to  an  architecture  richer  in  ornament  than 
in  constructive  design ;  the  building  rude,  but  the  added 
ornament  rich. 

In  Northern  Italy  are  found  remains  of  large  mounds, 
cased  outside,  wholly  or  in  part,  with  cut  stone.  Within, 
these  may  be  mere  chambers  like  those  treated  of  above, 
or  still  more  simple  and  faced  with  a  few  large  slabs ; 
but  without  they  have  had  some  monumental  character. 
Buildings  of  this  character,  and  evidently  meant  for  tombs, 
are  found  in  Asia  Minor  and  in  Algeria,  and  on  a  gigantic 
scale  in  India,  where  they  are  the  prototypes  of  the  splen- 
did "  pagodas  "  of  later  times ;  but  those  of  Tuscany  and 
Umbria  are  peculiarly  important  to  us,  because  of  their 
connection  with  Roman  tombs  of  the  great  imperial  epoch. 
These  buildings  we  associate  with  the  Etruscans  or  Etru- 
rians, the  people  of  Etruria,  who  governed  all  Italy  from 
the  Tiber  to  the  Po,  and  at  one  time  held  the  city  of 
Rome  in  subjection.  Their  language  cannot  be  read  by 
moderns ;  no  complete  building  nor  even  any  extensive 
ruin  of  theirs  remains ;  we  have  only  movables,  such  as 
bronze  lamps  and  mirrors  and  jewelry,  stone  and  terra- 
cotta coffins  and  urns ;  and,  of  building,  fragments  of 
fortress  wall,  tombs  and  gateways,  and  one  or  two  struct- 
ures in  the  city  of  Rome  itself.  Among  those  rough 
and  unarchitectural  structures  there  is  one  element  intro- 
duced which  is  of  surpassing  importance  to  all  subsequent 
time,  the  true  arch  built  of  radiating  voussoirs.  This 
way  of  covering-in  a  chamber  or  a  passage,  or  spanning 
a  doorway,  was  known  to  the  people  of  a  remote  antiquity 


ARCHAIC  AND   PREHISTORIC   BUILDING  XXvii 

in  Egypt  and  in  Western  and  Eastern  Asia,  but  the 
people  who  built  what  we  call  Etruscan  buildings  were 
the  first  to  use  it  commonly  in  Europe.  Their  gateways 
of  fortified  cities  remain  at  Perugia  and  Volterra,  and  the 
famous  sewer  which  drained  the  Roman  Forum,  the 
Cloaca  Maxima,  was  of  the  time  of  the  semi-Etruscan 
Roman  kings.  Their  temples  have  gone,  and  of  them 
onty  the  account  by  Vitruvius  remains.  His  work  tells  us 
that  a  great  deal  of  wood  was  used  in  their  construction ; 
that  practically  only  the  substructure  and  the  columns 
were  of  stone ;  that  they  were  often  built  with  three  cham- 
bers side  by  side  in  the  cella,  with  a  portico  across  the 
fronts  of  the  three,  —  making  a  structure  nearly  square. 
Buildings  of  that  type  undoubtedly  existed  in  Rome  even 
in  the  great  days  of  the  Empire,  but  the  Roman  temples 
were  not  the  most  characteristic  nor  the  most  success- 
ful Roman  buildings,  and,  moreover,  the  Greek  influence 
prevailed  over  the  Etruscan  in  that  as  in  other  things. 

Thousands  of  hillsides  and  of  riverbanks  have  seen  the 
buildings  of  half-barbarous  people  rise  and  fall  again,  with 
no  result  except  the  piles  of  ruin  in  which  later,  not  more 
civilized  people  quarry.  Once,  only,  in  a  series  of  cen- 
turies, appears  an  architectural  thought  destined  to  grow 
great  and  stimulate  other  thoughts  and  call  out  their  em- 
bodiment in  visible  form.  Such  a  beginning  was  made  in 
Egypt  we  do  not  know  when,  —  perhaps  five  thousand 
years  before  our  era,  —  and  this  was  great  and  prevailed 
mightily  for  an  incredible  length  of  time.  Such  a  begin- 
ning must  have  been  in  the  lowlands  along  the  Euphrates 
and  the  Tigris,  perhaps  as  early  as  the  African  one.     In 


XXV  111  INTRODUCTION 

a  different  way,  such  another  must  have  taken  shape 
along  the  Hwang-ho,  we  may  yet  learn  at  what  period 
of  early  history.  But  the  one  commencement  of  con- 
structional art  which  is  the  most  important  to  us  was 
much  more  recent.  Somewhere  in  Grecian  lands,  about 
seven  hundred  years  before  our  era,  such  a  beginning  of 
architecture  was  made ;  two  centuries  and  a  half  later 
this  had  grown  into  the  Grecian  architecture  which  we 
admire ;  from  this  it  came  to  pass  that  Roman  building 
was  what  it  was,  and  from  Roman  building  has  come  all 
that  of  later  Europe. 


CHAPTER   I 

GRECIAN  ARCHITECTURE  from  about  600  B.C.  to  the  Roman 
Conquest;  exists  in  all  Lands  inhabited  by  Greeks,  from  Asia 
Minor  to  Sicily.  Doric,  Ionic,  and  Corinthian  Styles;  the  last 
named  not  fully  developed  by  the  Greeks. 

I 

In  the  seventh  and  following  centuries  b.c.  the  people 
who  called  themselves  Graikoi  and  Hellenes,  and  whom 
the  Romans  called  Grasci,  occupied  what  is  now  the  king- 
dom of  the  Hellenes,  or  Greece  as  we  call  it  in  English, 
and  also  some  part  of  what  is  now  Turkey  in  Europe. 
Colonies  of  these  people  were  in  possession  also  of  much 
land  on  the  neighbouring  seacoasts,  and  in  some  of  these 
places  so  many  Greeks  had  come  as  immigrants,  or  had 
been  born  of  immigrants,  that  the  whole  populace  must 
have  seemed  Greek  to  a  visitor.  Such  colonies  held  most 
of  the  western  coast  of  Asia  Minor ;  in  Italy  the  coast  on 
the  Gulf  of  Taranto,  that  of  the  little  peninsula  nearest  to 
Sicily,  now  called  Calabria,  and  many  other  isolated  places 
on  the  eastern  and  western  coasts;  and  in  Sicily  practi- 
cally all  the  coast  except  some  parts  of  the  northern  shore. 
Besides  these  possessions  the  Greeks  controlled  Crete  and 
Rhodes  and  the  small  islands  of  the  Archipelago ;  and  they 
generally  held  a  predominating  influence  in  Cyprus. 


2  GRECIAN  ARCHITECTURE  [Chap.  I 

In  all  these  countries  ruins  of  Greek  buildings  and 
remains  of  Greek  art  have  been  found,  and  more  are  found 
every  year.  The  buildings  are  all  more  or  less  ruinous; 
they  have  lost  their  sculptures,  except  for  a  few  shattered 
fragments,  and  they  have  lost,  except  for  a  few  faint  traces, 
the  painting  in  vivid  colours  which  was  a  part  of  their  deco- 
ration. But  there  is  a  universal  agreement  among  stu- 
dents of  art  that  this  architecture  of  the  Greeks  was  most 
beautiful  and  worthy  to  be  studied.  From  the  sixteenth 
century  there  have  been  travellers  who  have  brought  back 
to  western  Europe  some  account  of  what  remained  of  it. 
In  1762,  James  Stuart  and  Nicholas  Revett  published  in 
London  the  first  volume  of  a  great  book  on  the  Antiquities 
of  Athens ;  two  or  three  less  elaborate  studies  had  pre- 
ceded this,  and  scholars  in  western  Europe  then  began 
to  feel  that  there  was  a  noble  architecture  which  had 
remained  unknown  to  them.  In  18 11  the  Earl  of  Elgin 
brought  from  Athens  those  sculptured  stones  of  the  Par- 
thenon, the  Erechtheion,  and  other  ancient  buildings  at 
Athens  which  are  now  in  the  British  Museum.  The 
science  of  archaeology,  that  is  the  study  of  the  remains 
of  ancient  art  and  building  and  the  like  in  a  thorough 
way,  may  be  said  to  have  begun  with  the  writings  of 
Johann  Joachim  Winckelmann,  who  died  in  1768. 

The  Greek  remains  have  been  studied  in  a  more  and 
more  serious  fashion  as  this  science  of  archaeology  has 
been  more  developed  and  perfected.  A  great  deal  of 
money  and  labour  has  been  devoted  to  digging  and  explo- 
ration, and  also  to  careful  measurements  and  minute  study 
of  what  has  been  found.     Some  of  the  explorations  will  be 


Sec.  II]  DORIC  BUILDINGS  3 

mentioned  in  this  book.  There  are  at  Athens,  the  capital 
of  modern  Greece,  four  schools  of  archaeological  study,  kept 
up  by  the  French  government,  the  German  government, 
and  by  societies  in  the  United  States  and  in  England. 
Very  many  books  on  this  subject,  some  of  them  very  large 
folios  of  plates,  have  been  published ;  and  photographs  by 
thousands  have  been  made  of  Greek  remains  of  all  sorts. 
Casts  of  sculptures  and  of  architectural  fragments  have 
been  made  and  distributed  among  museums  all  over 
Europe  and  America.  Many  periodicals  are  issued,  de- 
voted wholly  or  in  part  to  Greek  architecture  and  art. 
Many  of  the  great  universities  and  colleges  have  professor- 
ships and  whole  departments  of  study  of  these  same  sub- 
jects. And  there  is  a  constant  discussion  going  on  con- 
cerning all  those  points  which  are  doubtful  or  disputed. 

II 

The  best  preserved  early  Greek  buildings  which  remain 
to  us,  except  three  which  will  be  separately  described,  are 
oblong  rectangular  structures  one  story  high,  having  many 
columns  which  form  a  portico  at  one  end,  or  porticoes  at 
both  ends,  or  on  all  sides  of  an  inner  chamber  or  pair  of 
chambers.  Their  remains  show  that  they  each  had  a 
double-pitched  roof  of  slight  inclination,  which  ended  in  a 
gable  at  each  end ;  such  a  low  gable  as  is  called  a  pedi- 
ment. These  buildings  are  recognized  as  temples  dedi- 
cated to  the  divinities  of  the  Greek  Mythology;  and 
inscriptions  found  in  and  near  them,  or  the  allusions  of 
ancient  writers,  often  enable  us  to  say  positively  that  such 


4  GRECIAN  ARCHITECTURE  [Chap.  I 

a  building  is  a  temple  of  Athena,  as  the  Parthenon  at 
Athens ;  or  of  Zeus,  as  the  great  temple  at  Olympia ;  or 
of  some  other  divinity  or  some  hero  or  demigod.  Now, 
no  one  of  these  temples  is  in  any  respect  like  a  modern 
place  of  worship ;  they  have  but  small  interiors,  and  those 
interiors  seem  not  to  have  been  lighted  by  windows  in  any 
case,  but  only  through  the  doorway  or  by  lamps,  except 
where  there  was  a  part  left  unroofed.  It  is  maintained  by 
some  writers  that  a  system  of  small  openings  was  made  in 
the  slope  of  the  roof,  and  by  others  that  there  were  open- 
ings in  low  walls  supported  on  columns  within,  somewhat 
like  the  clear-story  windows  of  basilicas  and  Gothic 
churches  (Ch.  III.,  IV.,  V.).  Some  writers  maintain  that 
an  open  court  was  left,  as  wide  as  the  whole  space  within 
the  solid  walls,  and  others  think  that  the  space  between 
those  walls  and  an  inner  row  of  columns  was  left  unroofed. 
There  is  no  evidence  that  any  such  means  were  used, 
except  a  sentence,  hard  to  understand,  in  Vitruvius  (see 
the  Glossary),  but  this  sentence  does  not  say  that  temples 
were  commonly  lighted  in  any  such  way  or  in  any  way. 
It  has  been  merely  assumed  that  there  must  have  been 
light  openings,  and  different  writers  have  tried  to  find  a 
way  in  which  they  might  have  been  made.  The  interiors 
were  small  and  the  need  of  daylight  was  not  very  great ; 
incense  may  have  been  burned  in  front  of  the  principal 
statue,  and  a  score  or  two  of  persons  may  have  been  pres- 
ent to  witness  this  ceremony;  but  the  space  was  hardly 
sufficient  even  for  these,  for  we  know  that  much  of  it  was 
given  up  to  other  statues,  and  to  the  display  of  gifts  and 
rich  treasures.     Those  religious  ceremonies  which  needed 


Sec.  II] 


DORIC  BUILDINGS 


u 


to  be  seen  by  the  whole  people  were  necessarily  performed 
in  the  open  air,  and  we  know  that  often  an  altar  was  per- 
manently set  up  in  front  of  the  temple  or  in  some  cases  at 
one  side. 

A  very  few  temples  remain  with  all  their  principal 
columns  standing  and  some  part  of  their  walls  and  of  the 
structure  once  raised  upon  the  great  columns  still  in  place. 
The  best  preserved  of  all  is  at  Athens :  the  temple  usually 
called  that  of  Theseus,  but  probably  that  of  Hephaistos. 
Figure  i  gives  the  plan  of  this  building.  The  enclosed  part 
(naos  or  cella)  was 
only  about  nineteen 
by  thirty-eight  feet, 
and  the  whole  length 
of  the  walls,  includ- 
ing the  two  vesti- 
bules, called  pronaos 
and  epinaos,  is  only 
seventy-two  feet.  A 
portico  of  columns, 

six  at  each  end,  and  thirteen  on  each  side,  including  the 
corner  ones,  carries  the  entablature,  upon  which  the  roof 
once  rested.  Some  part  of  the  ceiling  of  the  pteroma,  or 
space  between  the  naos  wall  and  the  colonnade,  remains, 
but  no  part  of  the  sloping  roof.  During  the  Middle  Ages 
the  building  had  been  used  as  a  church,  —  perhaps  as  a 
mosque,  after  the  Turkish  conquest,  —  and  a  vaulted  roof 
had  been  built ;  also  a  kind  of  apse  at  fhe  east  end,  of  both  of 
which  additions  traces  remain.  Still,  no  part  of  the  original 
building  except  the  roof  can  be  misunderstood  (see  Fig.  2), 


T 
1 


Fig.  I .    Athens :  so-called  Temple  of  Theseus.    Fifth 
century  B.C.     Plan. 


GRECIAN   ARCHITECTURE 


[Chap.  I 


Another  temple  very  much  like  the  one  described 
above,  longer  by  thirty  feet  and  nearly  as  well  preserved^ 
is  the  one  called  temple  of  Concordia,  near  Girgenti,  on 
the  south  coast  of  Sicily.  The  ruins  around  it  are  known 
to  be  those  of  the  ancient  city  of  Akragas,  called  by 
the  Romans  Agrigentum.  This  temple,  as  well  as  the 
Athenian  one,  belongs  to  the  best  period  of  the  style: 
the  period  of  the  most  graceful  proportions  of  larger  and 


Fig.  2.     Athens :  so-called  Temple  of  Theseus,  from  the  northeast. 


smaller  parts.  Another  well-preserved  hexastyle  temple  is 
at  Passtum,  on  the  west  coast  of  Italy,  near  Naples.  This 
is  about  190  feet  long,  and,  like  all  these  buildings,  of  pro- 
portionate width  and  other  dimensions :  it  is  generally 
called  the  temple  of  Poseidon  because  the  town  was  sacred 
to  that  god,  and  was  called  by  the  Greek  colonists  Posei- 
donia.  Another  very  similar,  but  much  smaller,  —  not 
even  as  large  as  the  Theseion  at  Athens,  —  and  called  the 
temple  of  Demeter,  stands  also  within  the  walls  of  Paestum. 


Sec.  II]  DORIC  BUILDINGS  7 

Another  is  on  the  southern  coast  of  Sicily,  among  the 
ruins  of  the  ancient  town  of  Segesta.  This  building  had 
not  been  entirely  finished  when  the  work  was  interrupted; 
and  a  great  deal  has  been  learned  from  it  about  the 
Grecian  ways  of  stone-cutting  and  building.  Besides 
these,  of  which  all,  or  nearly  all,  the  outer  screen  of  col- 
umns remains  standing,  there  are  at  Akragas  two  ruined 
buildings  of  the  same  character,  of  which  many  of  the 
columns  still  stand ;  one  on  the  island  of  ^gina,  near 
Athens,  with  twenty  of  its  columns  erect,  and  famous  for 
its  sculptures,  which  have  been  removed  to  the  sculpture 
gallery  at  Munich ;  one  on  the  promontory  called  Cape 
Colonna,  near  Athens,  and  known  as  the  temple  of  Sunion; 
one  at  the  ancient  Bassai,  on  the  west  coast  of  the  Morea, 
with  thirty-six  columns  erect ;  one  on  the  shore  of  the  Gulf 
of  Taranto,  among  the  ruins  of  Metapontum ;  two  at  Syra- 
cuse, in  Sicily ;  one,  the  temple  of  Hera,  at  Akragas ;  and, 
in  the  ruins  of  Selinus  in  Sicily,  several  temples,  overthrown 
by  earthquakes,  but  lying  nearly  as  they  fell.  There  have 
been  explored  and  studied  also,  thoroughly  and  with  great 
gain  to  our  knowledge,  the  ruins  of  more  completely  de- 
stroyed temples  at  Assos  on  the  coast  of  Asia  Minor,  and 
Olympia  in  Greece ;  and  still  other  ruins  have  been  more 
or  less  carefully  examined,  as  at  Corinth,  at  Nemea,  south- 
west of  Corinth,  and  at  Taormina  in  Sicily, 

The  plan.  Fig.  i,  will  suffice  to  explain  the  general 
arrangement  of  each  and  all  of  these  temples.  They  differ 
from  one  another  only  in  having  one,  two,  or  more  com- 
partments in  the  part  enclosed  by  walls,  in  the  width  of 
the  pteroma,  in  the  spacing  of  the  columns,  in  the  forms  of 


/iM 


Fig.  3.     Poestum,  Italy :  so-called  Temple  of  Poseidon.     View  of  inner  colonnades. 


Sec.  II] 


DORIC   BUILDINGS 


shaft  and  capital,  and  in  dimensions.  Greater  differences 
may  have  existed,  of  which  we  cannot  be  sure  in  the 
present  state  of  our  knowledge  of  these  ruins:  thus  the 
interior  of  the  naos  is  known  to  have  had  two  rows  of 
columns  m  several  of  the  temples,  and  in  two  or  three  it  is 
certain  that  these  colonnades  were  two  stories  high.  Figure 
3  shows  this  arrangement,  as  it  still  exists  at  the  temple 
called  that  of    Poseidon  at  Paestum.     This  is,  of   all  the 


Fig.  4.     Athens:  Parthenon.     Finished  438  B.C.     Plan. 


Doric  temples,  the  one  whose  interior  disposition  is  best 
preserved.  It  is  peculiar  in  having  the  floor  of  the  naos 
raised  high  above  the  floor  of  the  pteroma;  but  in  other 
respects  the  plan  of  the  Parthenon  (Fig.  4)  may  be  consulted. 
It  is  evident  that  in  these  buildings  there  are  no  arches, 
but  only  plain  post-and-beam  construction ;  no  windows, 
no  chimneys,  and  in  general  nothing  complex  or  hard  to 
understand  in  all  the  building.  All  the  structure,  the  roof 
excepted,  is  made  up  of  carefully  cut  stones,  laid  one  upon 


lO  GRECIAN   ARCHITECTURE  [Chap.  I 

another  in  wall  or  column,  or  stretching  across  from  one 
column  to  another  or  from  column  to  wall.  The  columns, 
like  the  walls,  are  made  of  blocks  laid  one  upon  another. 
It  is  found,  moreover,  that  no  mortar  has  been  used  in  any 
of  these  buildings.  The  stones  rest  in  their  places  because 
of  weight  and  friction  alone,  except  that,  as  a  precaution 
against  earthquakes  and  to  help  in  the  original  setting  of 
the  large  blocks,  iron  or  bronze  cramps  were  often  used. 
It  appears,  too,  that  special  means  were  used  to  make  the 
stones  fit  one  another  closely,  with  almost  invisible  joints. 
It  is  thought  that  the  drums  of  the  columns  were  revolved, 
one  upon  the  other,  so  as  to  grind  their  surfaces  smooth 
and  uniform. 

Besides  these  hexastyle  temples  a  very  few  are  known 
to  us  which  have  eight  columns  at  each  end,  and  which 
are  therefore  called  octostyle.  The  best  preserved  of  these 
is  the  celebrated  Parthenon  at  Athens.  Figure  4  gives 
the  plan  of  this  temple,  and  Fig.  5  an  outline  elevation 
of  one  end  of  it  compared  with  a  similar  elevation  of  the 
temple  of  Zeus  at  Olympia,  that  the  reader  may  note  how 
the  carefully  considered  proportions  of  the  hexastyle  temple 
were  at  once  abandoned  when  an  octostyle  temple  was 
decided  on.  In  all  minor  proportions,  and  in  the  propor- 
tion of  length  to  width,  there  is  no  change,  and  the  usual 
minute  care  is  observed,  but  no  attempt  seems  to  have 
been  made  to  allow  for  or  accommodate  the  design  of  the 
fronts  or  ends  of  the  temple  to  this  addition  of  one-third 
to  the  width.  It  seems  probable  that  the  general  mass  of 
the  Parthenon  was,  therefore,  less  perfect  in  the  relations 
of  width  to  other  dimensions.     The  great  temple  at  the 


rrrrinr^"^''^"^"^''i"r!ri 


i        -o       'S      2a     «. 
J I \ '       '       '       ' L L 


limJ I \ 1 ] I 1 l_J l__| 


Fig.  5.     Athens,  Parthenon;   and  Olympia,  Temple  of  Zeus.     Each  of  the  fifth 
century  B.C.      Elevations  on  the  same  scale. 


12 


GRECIAN   ARCHITECTURE 


[Chap.  I 


ancient  Selinus,  mentioned  above,  was  another  octostyle 
structure.  It  may  have  been  even  more  excessively  broad, 
in  appearance,  than  the  Parthenon,  for  the  space  between 
the  columns  and  the  wall  of  the  naos  is  very  wide.  A 
temple  arranged  in  this  way  is  C2i\\ed  pseudodipteral.  The 
little  temple  at  Eleusis,  thought  to  be  that  of  Artemis  (see 
Fig.  6),  is  of  the  form  called  distyle  i7i  antis. 

A  very  few  buildings  are  known  to  us  which  were  cer- 
tainly or  probably  not  temples  but  which  are  like  the 
temples  in  the  style  of  the  columns,  the  entablatures,  and 
other  details.  One  of  these  is  the  singu- 
lar and  puzzling  building  at  Paestum, 
having  nine  columns  at  each  end.  This 
seems  not  to  have  had  a  naos ;  in  place 
of  a  naos  wall  are  inner  rows  of  columns, 
with  square  pillars  at  the  four  corners, 
enclosing  a  space  which  may  have  been 
screened  by  low  walls  between  the  columns.  And  a  third 
row  of  columns  divides  it  lengthwise.  It  is  called  the 
Basilica  (Ch.  II.)  because  it  seems  to  have  been  a  portico 
for  walking  in  shelter — a  covered  promenade.  Another 
is  the  Telesterion  at  Eleusis.  Little  is  known  of  this  but 
its  ground  plan,  and  the  recorded  fact  that  it  was  used  for 
the  initiation  of  persons  into  the  mysteries  of  Eleusis.  It 
was  dodecastyle,  but  not  peripteral ;  that  is,  it  had  columns 
in  front,  twelve  in  one  portico,  but  none  on  the  sides  nor 
rear.  Another  such  building  is  the  little  known  colonnade 
at  Porto  Mandri,  in  Attica,  among  the  ruins  of  the  ancient 
Thorikos.  Still  another  is  the  round  building  at  Samo- 
thrace  called  the  Arsinoeion  ;  and  most  unusual  and  curious 


Fig.  6.  Eleusis:  so- 
called  Temple  of 
Artemis.     Plan. 


Sec.  II] 


DORIC   BUILDINGS 


13 


of  all  is  the  round  building  (Tholos)  at  Epidauros,  on  the 
eastern  coast  of  the  Morea,  in  which  it  appears  that  a 
complete  circular  portico  of  twenty-six  Doric  columns  sur- 


FlG.  7.     Athens:  Propylaia  of  Acropolis.     437104328.0.     Plan. 

rounded  a  circular  sekos,  or  enclosed  chamber.  Of  these 
buildings  it  will  be  necessary  to  speak  when  we  are  con- 
sidering the  Grecian  Corinthian  style  (see  p.  30). 

Another  and  a  most  important  building   of  this    class 
is  the  gateway  structure  or  Propylaia  of  the  Acropolis  at 


14  GRECIAN    ARCHITECTURE  [Chap.  I 

Athens  (see  Figs.  7  and  8).  A  hexastyle  portico  facing 
westward  is  flanked  by  two  lower  and  smaller  porticoes  of 
only  three  columns  each,  which  project  about  twenty-five 
feet  toward  the  west.  Behind  these  smaller  porticoes  are 
rooms  of  no  very  elaborate  architecture,  forming  wings 
to  the  main  structure,  and  a  door  in  the  southern  wing 
leads  out  upon  the  high  platform  where  stands  the  temple 


Fig.  8.     Athens :  Propylaia  of  Acropolis.     Sectional  perspective. 

of  Athena  Nike,  which  will  be  described  in  the  next 
section.  All  the  three  porticoes  face  upon  the  ancient 
approach  to  the  Acropolis.  Foot-passengers  who  had 
reached  the  top  of  the  rocky  ascent  stepped  upon  the 
lowest  of  three  marble  steps  which  formed  the  stylo- 
bate.  Four-footed  creatures,  and  the  wagons  or  carts 
drawn  in  procession  or  otherwise,  passed  through  the 
central  and  wider  intercolumniation,  where  the  rock  was 


Sec.  II]  DORIC  BUILDINGS  1 5 

left  bare  in  a  continuous  roadway.  This  roadway  sloped 
steadily  uphill  toward  the  e^st,  and  the  foot-passengers 
passing  through  the  Propylaia  had  to  ascend  five  steps 
more  before  reaching  doorways  pierced  in  a  solid  wall  and 
passing  out  through  these  into  the  eastern  portico,  almost 
exactly  like  the  main  western  portico,  though  on  a  higher 
level.  Six  columns  of  a  different  pattern  from  the  rest, 
nearly  like  those  inside  the  temple  of  Bassai  (p.  7),  sepa- 
rate the  central  roadway  from  the  raised  floor  of  the  por- 
tico on  each  side  of  it.  (See  the  next  section  for  the 
account  of  these  Ionic  columns.) 

Figure  9  shows  three  columns  and  the  entablature  upon 
them  of  one  of  these  buildings.  Beginning  at  the  bottom, 
it  should  be  noticed  that  the  shaft  is  set  upon  the  stylobate 
directly,  whereas  all  the  other  columns  we  shall  have  to 
speak  of  in  this  book  have  bases.  Generally  the  shaft  is 
built  up  of  many  pieces,  each  of  the  full  thickness  of  the 
shaft :  these  nearly  cylindrical  masses  are  called  drums. 
The  ruins  of  a  temple  at  Corinth  have  monolithic  shafts : 
the  columns  there  are  of  shorter  and  stouter  proportion 
than  others,  and  the  temple  is  assumed  to  be  the  oldest  of 
any  of  which  considerable  remains  exist,  and  probably  of 
the  seventh  century  b.c.  The  shaft  is  always  grooved  with 
channels  having  only  a  sharp  edge  or  arris  between  them : 
these  channels  are  of  a  fiattish  curve,  generally  elliptical. 
The  number  of  these  channels  is  sixteen  or  twenty.  The 
capital  is  made  up  of  the  round  bell  and  the  square  abacus. 
Upon  the  abaci  rest  horizontal  bars  or  lintels  o'f  stone,  and 
these  together  form  the  epistyle  or  architrave.  In  nearly 
all  the  buildings  these  epistyles  were  left  by  the  builders 


^ 


Fiu.  9. 


Sec.  IIJ 


DORIC   BUILDINGS 


17 


plain,  as  we  find  them,  although  they  were  often  decorated 
afterward  with  bronze  shields  hung  up,  with  inscrip- 
tions, and  with 
painting.  In  a 
single  known 
instance,  the 
temple  at  As- 
sos,  the  epi- 
style is  carved. 
Upon  the  epi- 
style rests  a 
second  tier  or 
layer  of  stone, 
built  up  in  a 
more  elaborate 
way :  the  stone 
blocks  called  triglyphs  are 
thick,  and  carry  the  cornice 
and  all  above  it,  but  the 
metopes  between  them  are 
filled  with  thinner  pieces 
often  carved  with  figures 
and  groups  in  high  relief. 
It  is  thought  that  in  very 
ancient  times  these  metopes 
were  left  open.  Upon  the 
frieze  rests  the  cornice, 
which  is  shaped  so  as  to 
allow  no  water  to  run  from  it  along  the  frieze  and  archi- 
trave; that  is,  it  is  cut  with  a  drip-moulding.     Figure  10 


Fig.  10.  A,  Epistyle  or  architrave  —  in  this 
case  two  stones  in  depth.  B,  Triglyph; 
the  metopes  are  between  the  triglyphs,  and 
the  whole  horizontal  band  is  the  frieze. 
C,  Cornice.     D,  Abacus  of  the  capital. 


GRECIAN   ARCHITECTURE 


[Chap.  I 


gives  all  the  parts  of  the  structure  which  are  common  to  all 
these  buildings. 

All  the  buildings  which  have  been  mentioned  are  said 
to  be  of  the  Doric  style  of  architecture.  The  columns 
with  their  entablature  above  form  the  Doric  order;  and 
we  say  that  one  of  these  porticoes  is  only  one  order  high, 
that  is,  that  there  is  only  one  column  with  its  entablature 
in  its  whole  height  —  not  two  or  three  stories  of  columns. 


Fig.  II.     Athens:  Parthenon.     A  capital  with  colour  indicated  restored. 

The  particular  beauty  and  charm  of  this  Doric  order  are 
in  the  extreme  refinement  of  its  details.  Every  detail  of 
the  whole  order  was  the  subject  of  constant  thought,  and 
the  designers  were  always  modifying  the  section  of  the 
grooves  in  the  triglyph  and  of  the  channels  of  the  shafts, 
and  of  the  swelling  bell  of  the  capital.  The  column 
in  a  special  way  was  constantly  studied  and  often  changed. 
Figure  1 1  gives  a  large  detail  of  a  capital  of  the  Parthe- 
non, with  the  ornamental  painting  restored  nearly  as  it 
must  have  been.     The  colour  leaves  traces  behind  it  even 


Sec.  II]  DORIC  BUILDINGS  1 9 

when  entirely  gone,  so  that  the  pattern  can  be  seen 
plainly,  and,  moreover,  the  colour  itself  has  been  found 
in  small  parts.  Figure  12  gives  the  outline,  on  a  still 
larger  scale,  of  several  capitals  of  different  buildings.  It 
will  be  seen   that  the  curve  of  the  echinus  is  very  deli- 


FlG.  12.  Profiles  of  Doric  capitals,  as  follows:  Nos.  i  and  6,  early  capitals  found  on 
Acropolis  at  Athens.  No.  2,  Athens:  so-called  Temple  of  Theseus.  No.  3,  Athens: 
Propylaia.  Nos.  4  and  5,  Athens :  Parthenon.  No.  7,  Cori  (Southern  Italy)  :  so-called 
Temple  of  Hercules. 

cate  indeed,  and  the  four  annulets  and  the  little  groove 
called  the  gorgerin,  or  necking,  are  very  minute  and  very 
carefully  modelled  so  as  to  make  thin  and  delicate  lines 
of  shadow  around  the  column  at  the  junction  of  shaft  and 
capital.  So  the  slight  rounding-out  of  the  shaft  at  the 
very  top,  above  the  gorgerin,  is  arranged  so  as  to  give  a 


20  GRECIAN   ARCHITECTURE  [Chap.  I 

series  of  little  rounded  lobes  of  shade.  If,  now,  we  were 
to  put  side  by  side  the  capitals  of  many  other  buildings, 
as  a  few  are  compared  in  Fig.  12,  we  should  find  that  the 
curve  of  the  echinus  and  the  shape  and  place  of  the  annu- 
lets and  gorgerin  were  different  in  them  all.  It  is  evident 
that  each  designer  set  himself  to  a  most  careful  considera- 
tion of  these  curves  and  these  minute  differences  of  place 
and  of  outline.  The  shaft  too  was  delicately  modelled  ;  it 
was  always  tapered,  but  generally  in  a  curve  and  not  in  a 
straight  line.  This  convex  swell  is  called  the  entasis,  and 
much  study  has  been  given  to  it  by  modern  archaeologists 
in  order  to  ascertain  its  exact  curve  and  the  manner  of 
determining  that  curve  mathematically ;  but  there  is  little 
doubt  that  it  was  made  by  hand  and  eye  only.  There  are 
other  peculiarities  which  have  been  discovered  by  very 
careful  measurements,  as  in  the  Parthenon.  In  that 
famous  building  the  columns  are  not  truly  vertical,  but 
those  at  the  angles  of  the  eastern  portico,  for  instance, 
are  set  a  little  slanting  inward  at  top;  those  next  to  the 
corner  ones  are  set  more  nearly  vertical,  the  slope  becom- 
ing less  and  less  toward  the  middle  of  the  portico.  Per- 
haps this  slant  in  the  corner  columns  may  be  put  at  an 
average  of  two  inches  in  the  height  of  about  thirty-one 
feet.  The  object  of  this  is  to  give  an  appearance  of  per- 
fect solidity,  and  therefore  of  repose ;  not  only  by  making 
the  base  a  little  broader  in  comparison,  but  also  by  giving 
the  upright  lines  an  appearance  of  tending  to  come 
together  at  top.  Of  course  the  eye  could  never  detect 
the  inclination ;  but  it  was  thought  to  affect  the  spec- 
tator, insensibly.     Another  similar  device  was  this:    the 


Sec.  II]  DORIC  BUILDINGS  21 

seemingly  horizontal  lines  of  the  stylobate  and  of  the 
entablature  are  really  curved  upward  in  the  middle.  The 
stylobate  of  the  east  end,  in  its  length  of  about  102  feet, 
is  crowned  up  a  little  more  than  three  inches,  and  the 
under  side  of  the  architrave  above  is  crowned  up  a  little 
more  than  two  and  a  half.  At  the  west  end  the  curvature 
is  slightly  greater.  On  the  two  long  sides  it  cannot  be 
judged  so  well,  because  of  the  shattered  condition  of  the 
stylobate. 

If,  then,  it  seems  surprising  and  incomprehensible  to  the 
modern  student  that  the  Greeks,  with  their  great  power 
of  invention,  should  have  gone  on  for  a  century  or  more 
repeating  so  closely  the  features  and  the  general  disposi- 
tion of  their  Doric  buildings,  it  is  equally  surprising  that 
they  should  have  found  satisfaction  in  such  very  minute 
and  invisible  refinements  of  design.  Their  architectural 
conception  hardly  included  ornamental  sculpture  as  an 
adjunct  (Sec.  V.),  and  the  general  scheme  of  the  temple 
was  not  changed  from  two  or  three  main  types.  The 
arrangement  and  re-arrangement  of  mouldings  with  deli- 
cate profiles,  and  the  determination  of  a  greater  or  less 
slope  or  curvature,  were  clearly  important  elements  in  their 
design.  This,  with  other  indications,  would  lead  us  to 
believe  in  an  artistic  sense  among  the  Greeks  far  superior 
to  that  possessed  by  any  modern  community  of  European 
stock. 


22 


GRECIAN   ARCHITECTURE 


[Chap.  I 


III 


After  the  Doric  temples,  the  most  numerous  Greek 
buildings  known  to  us  are  those  the  principal  design  of 
which  is  like  that  of  the  interior  orders  of  the  temple  of 
Bassai  and  the  Propylaia  of  Athens  —  alluded  to  above. 
The  most  striking  feature  of  this  Ionic  style,  as  it  is  called, 
is  the  curious  capital  with  what  are  called  volutes ;  that  is, 
spiral  ornaments  (see  Fig.  13);  but  all  the  other  members 

of  the  Ionic  order 
differ,  as  well,  from 
those  of  the  Doric 
order. 

One  small  Ionic 
temple  stands  on 
the  Acropolis  of 
Athens,  close  to  the 
Propylaia.  This  is  known  to  be  the  temple  of  Athena 
the  giver  of  victory,  or  Athena  Nike ;  or,  as  this  imper- 
sonation of  the  patron  goddess  is  sometimes  called, 
Nike  Apteros,  or  the  Wingless  Victory.  This  little 
building  had  been  entirely  removed,  and  its  fragments 
built  into  the  wall  of  the  Turkish  or  Venetian  fortress  built 
upon  the  Acropolis ;  as  it  now  stands  it  has  been  put 
together  again  since  the  fortress  was  torn  down  about 
sixty  years  ago;  it  is  therefore  not  certainly  correct  in 
general  form,  although  valuable  for  its  details.  Near  the 
Parthenon,  on  the  northern  edge  of  the  Acropolis,  is  a 
wonderful  double  or  triple  temple  called  the  Erechtheion, 


Fig.   13. 


Ionic    capital,  found   on   the  Acropolis   at 
Athens. 


Sec.  Ill] 


IONIC   BUILDINGS 


23 


from  Erechtheus,  to  whom  it  is  known  to  have  been  dedi- 
cated, at  least  in  part  (see  Fig.  14).  This  building  has  a 
hexastyle  Ionic  portico  facing  the  east ;  a  tetrastyle  Ionic 
portico  to  the  north  and  on  much  lower  ground;  and  a 
very  curious  and  beautiful  portico  of  Caryatides  to  the 
south,  for  which  see  p.  39.  The  west  end  of  the  main 
building,  opposite  and  corresponding  to  the  east  portico,  is 
lost ;  the  wall  that 
remains,^  reaching 
halfway  up  the 
height  of  the  north 
portico,  is  plain 
and  smooth,  ex- 
cept for  a  small 
door  which  is  ab- 
solutely unorna- 
mented  and  which 
probably  opened 
into  some  struct- 
ure that  has  now 
wholly  disap- 
peared. The  fact 
that  the  building 
is  as  irregular  in  plan  as  its  site  is  uneven,  and  that  its 
interior,  although  only  sixty  feet  long,  is  seen  to  have 
been  divided  into  at  least  two,  and  probably  three,  sepa- 

^  In  1852  a  storm  blew  down  the  wall  which  stood  upon  the  present  low  wall  or 
dado  ;  the  wall  so  destroyed  is  shown  in  Stuart  and  Revett's  book  as  having  three 
windows  and  four  engaged  columns.  There  can  be  no  doubt  that  all  that  super- 
structure was  of  a  late  period,  probably  built  in  the  fourth  or  fifth  century,  to 
make  the  building  useful  as  a  Christian  church. 


Fig.  14. 


Athens:  Erechtheion. 
Plan. 


Finished  about  407  B.C. 


24  GRECIAN  ARCHITECTURE  [Chap.  I 

rate  rooms,  has  caused  great  discussion  as  to  the  original 
dedication  of  the  temple.  It  is  generally  thought  that  a 
part  of  it  was  dedicated  to  Athena  Polias,  or  Athena  as 
the  guardian  of  the  city,  a  part  to  Erechtheus,  and  a  part, 
perhaps  the  south  porch  only,  to  Pandrosos,  a  daughter 
of  Kekrops ;  but  it  may  have  been  that  one  or  the  other  of 
those  shrines  was  outside  of  the  building  as  we  now  have  it. 

Other  Ionic  temples  were  as  regular  in  form  as  are  the 
Doric  ones ;  but  it  is  noticeable  that  fewer  of  those  which 
are  known  to  us  were  peristylar,  or  had  columns  on  every 
side.  The  forms  known  as  prostyle  and  amphiprostyle 
were  more  common.  On  the  other  hand,  the  great  temple 
at  Branchidai  near  Miletos  was  dekastyle  and  dipteral 
(see  Glossary),  and  must  have  had  io8  columns  in  its 
outer  porticoes.  In  like  manner  at  Ephesos  the  great 
temple  of  Artemis,  that  of  Zeus  at  Aizani,  that  of  Athena 
at  Priene,  that  of  Dionysos  at  Teos,  that  of  Aphrodite  at 
Aphrodisias,  and  that  of  Artemis  at  Magnesia,  all  on  the 
western  coast  of  Asia  Minor,  were  Ionic  temples.  These 
are  all  ruined  so  completely,  perhaps  because  overthrown 
by  earthquakes,  that  a  very  laborious  task  of  digging, 
exploration,  and  comparison  must  be  undertaken  before 
they  can  be  understood.  The  restorations  of  them  in 
published  books  are  generally  untrustworthy. 

There  are,  however,  some  few  recently  discovered  or 
recently  studied  Ionic  buildings  which  should  be  named 
apart,  as  showing  how,  in  the  changed  conditions  of  the 
Greek  world  under  Alexander  and  his  successors,  the 
Ionic  order  was  applied  to  other  than  the  old  temple 
architecture.     At  Bergama  on  the  western  coast  of  Asia 


Sec.  Ill]  IONIC  BUILDINGS  25 

Minor  are  the  ruins  of  the  ancient  Pergamon,  and  among 
these  are  the  remains  of  an  amazing  structure.  High  up 
on  the  rocky  hillside  is  a  square  platform,  and  from  this 
platform  there  rose  a  high  retaining  wall,  broken  through 
by  the  broad  flight  of  steps  which  led  to  the  square  open 
court,  in  which  stood  the  great  altar  of  Zeus.  On  three 
sides  of  this  court  stood  a  building,  or  at  least  a  portico,  of 
ionic  columns,  the  two  fronts  of  which,  one  on  each  side 
of  the  central  court,  much  resembled  the  fronts  of  temples. 
The  great  retaining  wall  was  covered  with  sculpture  in 
high  relief  and  of  heroic  size,  representing  in  a  very 
spirited  fashion  the  battle  of  the  gods  with  the  giants. 
At  about  the  same  epoch  was  the  portico  erected  by  At- 
talos  of  Pergamon  in  the  city  of  Athens.  This  was  a  two- 
storied  structure  having  Doric  columns  below  and  Ionic 
columns  above,  and  among  the  Ionic  columns  some  pillars 
of  the  curious  form  mentioned  below  as  belonging  to  the 
tomb  of  Mylasa,  but  Ionic  instead  of  Corinthian  in  detail. 
The  best  preserved  as  well  as  the  most  elaborate  speci- 
men of  the  Ionic  order,  though  a  small  building,  is  the 
Erechtheion  at  Athens.  This  is  also  the  most  beautiful 
in  form  and  in  sculptural  ornament ;  and  here,  more  even 
than  elsewhere,  is  seen  evidence  of  that  minute  care  for 
small  details  which  is  the  most  marked  characteristic  of 
Grecian  architecture.  Figure  15  gives  the  order  of  the 
Erechtheion  restored  from  fragments  of  that  building.  It 
will  be  seen  that  the  capital  has  two  sides  and  two  ends, 
and  is  not  the  same  on  all  four  sides,  as  is  the  Doric 
capital.  The  Greek  builders  did  not  like  the  effect  of 
these  two-sided  capitals  at  the  angle  of  a  peripteral  build- 


26 


GRECIAN   ARCHITECTURE 


[Chap.  I 


«'  I    I  ■'■■■■■  ^ '  I'  ^  ■'■''■'''■■  ^'^ 


%jiMK^'^kr,jiJkJ)JkJi]i^' 


ing,  where  capitals 
showing  their  broad 
sides  and  volutes  must 
stand  next  to  the 
corner  capital  which 
shows  its  ends;  and 
accordingly  a  capital 
was  invented  of  which  the 
plan  maybe  seen  in  Fig.  i6. 
Figure  17  shows  such  a 
corner  cap  seen  from  with- 
in. Still  another  plan  was 
tried :  that  having  four 
volutes  set  off  at  the  angles, 
radiating  from  the  centre 
of  the  circle  formed  by  the 
plan  of  the  shaft.  Some 
archaeologists  think  that 
this  was  the  earliest  form 
of  Ionic  capital. 

In  other  details  the  Ionic 
order  is  more  free  than  the 
Doric.  Bases  of  two  differ- 
ent patterns  are  used  for 
the  columns,  and  there  are 
varieties  of  each  of  these. 
The  entablature  differs 
greatly  in  different  exam- 
ples ;  in  general  the  frieze 
is     uniform,    without     tri- 


FiG.  15. 


Sec.  Ill] 


IONIC   BUILDINGS 


27 


glyphs  ;    the  architrave  is 

stepped  into  two  or  three 

different  surfaces,  sHghtly 

in   projection,    the    upper 

ones    beyond    the  lower; 

and  there  are  carved  orna- 
ments similar  to  those  of 

the  capital.     The  shaft  of 

the    column    is    grooved 

with      what     are      called 

flutes,  usually  of  circular 

curvature,   and    separated 

by  fillets.     As   there  are  so  very  few  monuments   of  the 

Ionic   style    which    have   been    thoroughly   studied,   it    is 

best  to  take  the   beautiful    and  well-known    Erechtheion 

as    its    type.       Figure    18    gives    an    angle    of    its    hexa- 

style  portico,  without  its 
more  elaborate  sculpture. 
This  should  be  compared 
with  the  Doric  type.  Fig.  10. 
The  Ionic  style  prevailed 
especially  in  the  Greek  col- 
onies of  Asia  Minor.  Its 
richest  and  largest  build- 
ings, so  far  as  we  know,  are 
later  than  those  of  the  Doric 
style.  If  the  epoch  of  great- 
est splendour  of  the  Doric  is 

Fig.  17.    Athens:  Temple  of  Athena  Nike;      gg^    ^^    ^^q    g(3_^   ^    fg^    yCarS 
one  of  the   corner  capitals   seen  from 

within.   Close  of  fifth  century  B.C.  after     tlic     Parthenon,    the 


Fig.  iS. 


Sec.  IV]  CORINTHIAN  BUILDINGS  29 

Propylaia,  and  the  temple  of  Zeus  at  Olympia  had  been 
completed,  so  far  as  we  know,  then  the  time  of  great- 
est splendour  of  the  Ionic  style  was  perhaps  a  century 
later.  It  seems  evident  that  the  artists  of  the  years 
after  430  felt  more  and  more  drawn  to  a  style  more 
elaborate  in  a  purely  architectural  way  than  the  Doric ; 
and  that  they  found  this  in  the  Ionic  style  with  its 
greater  freedom,  and  also  with  its  greater  abundance  of 
purely  architectural  sculpture.  Figure  18  shows  some- 
thing of  this  sculpture.  The  capital  has  its  volutes, 
and  a  ring  of  what  we  call  the  egg-and-dart  orna- 
ment, and  below  these  a  broad  band,  sometimes  adorned 
with  the  honeysuckle  ornament,  which  is  a  row  of  an- 
themions  or  bouquets  of  two  different  patterns  in  alter- 
nation ;  similar  bands  of  ornament  are  on  the  edge  of 
the  cornice,  and  at  different  parts  of  the  entablature. 
There  are  indeed  but  three  or  four  different  patterns  in 
use  in  the  whole  Grecian  Ionic  style  as  we  know  it  by 
its  remains,  and  it  is  as  surprising  to  us  to  note  this  con- 
tentment of  the  artists  with  their  few  patterns  as  to  note 
that  willingness  of  theirs  to  cling  to  the  Doric  style 
and  to  the  Ionic  style  so  long.  But  at  least  the  Ionic 
style  has  this  architectural  carved  ornament,  while  the 
Doric  style  has  none. 

IV 

There  are,  among  the  Greek  buildings  which  have  been 
studied,  some  curious  pieces  of  mixed  style  and  uncertain 
date,  as  in  the  so-called  Absalom  tomb  near  Jerusalem  and 
the  tomb  of  Theron  at  Akragas,  where  a  triglyph  frieze  is 


30  GRECIAN  ARCHITECTURE  [Chap.  I 

combined  with  an  Ionic  order ;  and  there  are  a  few  excep- 
tions to  all  rules,  as  at  Assos,  where  the  temple  architrave 
is  sculptured.  The  marvel  is,  however,  that  these  excep- 
tions of  all  kinds  are  so  few  in  the  aggregate,  and  so  unim- 
portant in  most  instances.  The  time  came,  however,  when 
the  Ionic  style  was  to  be  modified  into  something  very 
new  indeed,  —  another  style,  which  the  Greeks  had  begun 
to  use  when  the  time  came  for  their  pure  and  refined  art 
to  pass  into  the  bolder  and  coarser  Roman  development. 
This  style  is  seen  in  the  little  circular  building  in  Athens 
known  as  the  Choragic  Monument  of  Lysikrates  (Fig.  19). 
The  capitals  here  were  surrounded  by  a  belt  of  leafage  of 
great  richness,  and  above  this  was  a  combination  of  scrolls 
ending  in  volutes,  leaves  like  those  below,  and  anthemions. 
These  capitals  are  so  shattered  that  no  photograph  nor 
exact  drawing  of  one  of  them  would  explain  their  design, 
and  the  reader  is  referred  to  Fig.  21  for  a  Greek  Corinthian 
capital  of  still  finer  type.  Figure  20  gives  one  of  Stuart's 
excellent  prints  of  details  of  the  roof  of  this  little  building. 
The  only  other  building  on  the  mainland  of  Greece  which 
is  known  to  have  had  Corinthian  capitals  was  the  Tholos 
or  round  building  at  Epidauros.  This  had  a  ring  of  four- 
teen Corinthian  columns  within  the  circular  wall  of  the 
sekos  and  a  ring  of  twenty-six  Doric  columns  outside  of 
and  surrounding  the  same  circular  wall.  Figure  21  gives 
a  capital  of  this  order.  It  is  more  massive  and  more  evenly 
filled  with  foliage  than  the  capital  of  the  Lysikrates  monu- 
ment can  have  been.  A  capital  has  been  found  in  the 
ruins  of  the  temple  at  Bassai  near  the  ancient  Phigalia,  on 
the  western  coast  of  the  Morea ;  one  also  has  been  found 


Fig.  19.     Athens:  Choragic  Monument  of  Lysikrates.     Built  about  334  B.C. 


32 


GRECIAN   ARCHITECTURE 


[Chap.  I 


among  the  ruins  of  the  temple  of  Apollo  at  Branchidai,  on 
the  coast  of  Asia  Minor.     The  little  octagon  building  of 


o 

1_L 


Fig.  20.     Athens:  detail  (see  Fig.  19). 

later  date,  also  in  Athens,  and  called  the  Temple  of  the 
Winds,  from  the  sculpture  upon  it,  though  really  built  to 


Sec.  IV] 


CORINTHIAN  BUILDINGS 


33 


contain  a  clypsedra,  or  water-clock,  has  at  its  doorway  two 
pilasters  with  capitals  now  much  injured ;  others  have  been 


-  -^^^>'ZA''./'A>'  ..-v-',1^5i*4V5<*:;  ■'f^''Kr  'i.rff'   *^-':_-_,.  _;// 


Fig.  21.     Epidauros:  capital  apparently  intended  for  the  Tholos,  about  300  B.C. 

found  in  the  Grecian  islands ;  and  the  general  character  of 
these  is  shown  in  Figs.  22,  23.  These  various  types  of 
capital  are  different  enough ;  and  yet  by  common  agree- 


34 


GRECIAN  ARCHITECTURE 


[Chap.  I 


Fig.  22. 


ment  they  are  classed  together  as  of  the  Corinthian  style ; 
chiefly  because  it  was  afterward  the  Roman  practice  to  use 

each    of    these    patterns    of 
^^  -^     capital,    as    well    as    many 

more,  with  the  other  de- 
tails of  the  Corinthian  order. 
The  Lysikrates  monument 
is  known  to  have  been 
erected  soon  after  335  b.c.  ; 
that  is,  during  the  early 
years  of  the  reign  of  Alex- 
ander the  Great,  and  long 
after  the  great  age  of  the 
Doric  temples,  and  even  later  than  the  great  epoch  of  the 
Ionic  style.  The  Tholos  at  Epidauros  may  be  supposed  to 
have  about  the  same  date.  And  yet,  late  as  it  is,  this  is 
the  earliest  date  at  which  we  can  be  sure  that  Corinthian 
decoration  was  used.  In 
the  island  of  Samothrace 
are  the  ruins  of  a  cylindrical 
building  which  have  been 
thoroughly  examined  and 
their  meaning  shrewdly  ex- 
plained by  German  archae- 
ologists. There  was  a  ring 
of  pillars  carrying  the  roof 
(see  Fig.  24),  and  each  of 
these  pillars  was  finished 
on  the  outside  nearly  like  a  Doric  pilaster.  On  the 
inside,   however,    each    pillar  had    a   half-round,    engaged 


Fig.  23. 


Sec.  IV] 


CORINTHIAN    BUILDINGS 


35 


Fic.  24.     Island  of  Samothraki  (Samothrace)  :   Restoration  of  a  building  of  fourth 

century  B.C. 

column,  with  Corinthian  details  complete.  At  Melassa,  on 
the  western  coast  of  Asia  Minor  (the  ancient  Mylasa),  is  a 
curious  tomb,  which    has   four  corner  piers,  square,  with 


36  GRECIAN   ARCHITECTURE  [Chap.  I 

Corinthian  details,  and  eight  smaller  pillars  made  up  of 
two  half-columns  each,  all  Corinthian.  The  conclusion  is 
that  the  Corinthian  style  had  been  used  in  but  few  build- 
ings when  the  wars  which  preceded  the  Roman  conquest 
came  and  were  followed  in  Greece  by  exhaustion  and  com- 
parative languor  under  the  Roman  rule.  The  Roman  im- 
perial governors  and  their  architects  took  up  this  style  as 
their  favourite  one,  and  did  wonders  in  its  use,  as  will  be 
related ;  but  the  Greek  Corinthian  of  the  mainland  of 
Greece,  so  far  as  known  to  us,  is  in  the  few  buildings 
named  above,  and  there  it  appears  that  it  had  not  been 
completely  matured :  it  is  still  a  modification  of  the  Ionic 
style.^  Something  of  that  character  it  retains  in  the  build- 
ings of  the  islands  and  of  Asia :  it  seems  to  have  been  still 
undeveloped  when  the  East  was  brought  under  Roman 
influence. 

V 

Many  of  the  Greek  temples  known  to  us  were  deco- 
rated by  figure  sculpture,  and  some  of  this  is  of  such 
unsurpassed  excellence  that  it  has  given  great  fame  to 
the  buildings  which  once  held  it :  thus  the  temple  at 
^gina  (p.  7)  would  be  a  ruined  Doric  temple  less 
important  than  many  others,  but  for  its  famous  statues 
representing  the  battles  before  Troy,  now  in  the  sculpture 
gallery  at  Munich.  Greek  figure  sculpture  had  its  own 
development,  quite  apart  from  that  of  Greek  architecture. 
Separate  statues  were  set  up  on   tombs,  on  pedestals   in 

^  The  Epidauros  Corinthian  was  more  developed,  but  there  are  curious  cir- 
cumstances which  seem  to  show  that  it  was  still  an  unfamiliar  style. 


Sec.  VJ  ARCHITECTURAL  AND   FIGURE   SCULPTURE  37 

the  temples  or  in  the  sacred  enclosures,  and  along  the 
public  ways ;  and  marble  slabs  richly  carved  in  relief  with 
groups,  symbolical  or  commemorative,  were  used  as  tomb- 
stones, or  as  records  of  treaties  made,  victories  won,  or 
decrees  published  ;  or,  finally,  as  votive  offerings.  Relief 
sculpture  is  obviously  that  which  most  easily  finds  its 
proper  place  on  the  walls  and  pillars  of  buildings  ;  and, 
accordingly,  the  outside  of  the  naos  walls  as  in  the  Par- 
thenon, the  inside  of  it  as  at  Bassai,  both  the  inside  and 
outside  of  the  bounding  wall  of  a  sacred  enclosure  as  at 
Gjolbaschi  in  Asia  Minor,  the  outer  face  of  a  great  retain- 
ing wall  as  at  the  Pergamon  altar,  the  outside  of  a  para- 
pet as  around  the  temple  of  Nike  Apteros  at  Athens,  the 
outer  wall  of  a  tomb  as  in  the  Xanthos  tombs,  the  sculpt- 
ures of  which  are  now  in  the  British  Museum,  a  well-curb 
as  in  the  one  from  Corinth,  now  lost,^  the  shafts  of  col- 
umns and  the  plinths  which  support  them  as  at  Ephesos 
and  Branchidai,  and  the  epistyle  in  one  case  at  least  at 
Assos,  are  charged  with  such  sculpture.  The  metope 
slabs  were  sometimes  sculptured  as  at  Bassai,  Selinus, 
Assos,  the  Theseion  and  the  Parthenon  at  Athens,  and 
this  sculpture  was  sometimes  in  very  high  relief,  the 
figures  almost  separated  from  the  background.  It  is  no- 
ticeable that  sculpture  is  seldom  put  on  the  construc- 
tional parts  of  the  building.  It  is  generally  put  in  the 
metopes,  which  are  mere  filling-in  slabs,  however  thick 
they  may  be,  or  at  the  top  of  a  wall  which  does  not 
seem  to  do  much  work  except  as  an  enclosure,  or  upon 

^  See   Stackelburg,   Grdber  der  Hellenen ;    Michaelis,   Ancient  Marbles  hi 
Great  Britain. 


38  GRECIAN   ARCHITECTURE  [Chap.  I 

accessories.  The  capitals  are  not  sculptured  at  all  in 
the  Doric  style,  and  but  little  in  the  Ionic  style,  and  of 
sculptured  shafts,  bases,  epistyles,  and  other  such  working 
members  of  a  building,  only  a  few  instances  occur.  We 
shall  find  a  very  different  state  of  things  in  other  archi- 
tectural epochs.  The  Greeks  seem  to  have  hesitated  to 
carve  their  buildings.  In  the  Doric  style,  which  seems 
to  have  been  much  more  common  throughout  the  whole 
Greek  world  than  the  Ionic,  they  used  no  ornamental 
sculpture  at  all,  and  figure  sculpture  only  in  metopes,  and 
most  rarely  in  a  continuous  frieze.  In  the  Ionic  style 
they  used  a  good  deal  of  ornamental  sculpture,  but  only 
in  small  and  very  narrow  bands  and  lines,  and  only  of  five 
or  six  patterns,  constantly  repeated  with  slight  changes ; 
and  they  used  figure  sculpture  tentatively,  as  it  were,  try- 
ing it  in  this  part  of  the  building  and  in  that.  There 
are  almost  no  instances  of  that  mino^lino:  of  ornamental 
and  figure  sculpture,  that  insensible  passing  of  one  into 
the  other,  which  was  not  unknown  in  Roman  work,  and 
which  is  the  very  life  of  later  styles.^  The  draped  maidens 
used  as  pillars  in  the  south  porch  of  the  Erechtheion  (Fig. 
25)  are  the  best  instance  known  to  us  of  true  Greek  archi- 
tectural sculpture  of  a  high  order.  To  such  figures  the 
name  Caryatide  was  applied  at  a  later  time.  These  carry 
an  entablature,  exactly  as  if  they  were  columns.  Indeed, 
the  whole  ordonnance  of  figure,  stylobate,  and  entablature 

1  The  Eleusis  capital  with  winged  goat-headed  griffon ;  the  Erechtheion  an- 
themion  with  a  bird  ;  the  Priene  pilaster  head  with  a  pair  of  griffons  ;  the  marble 
chair  in  the  theatre  at  Athens,  described  on  p.  40  —  are  exceptions  and  show  us 
how  little  is  really  known.  The  reader  is  reminded,  too.  how  few  Ionic  build- 
ings have  been  thoroughly  studied.     See  Section  III. 


Sec.  VJ 


ARCHITECTURAL   AND   FIGURE   SCULPTURE 


39 


is  considered  an  order,  although  the  entablature  may  be 
more  simple  than  that  of  a  large  portico,  as  is  the  case 
in  the  Erechtheion  Caryatide  porch ;  and  this  is  called  a 
Caryatide  order,  or  sometimes   a  "  Persian  "  order,  for  no 


-«lULC;Jl^ 


Fig.  25.     Athens:  Erechtheion,  the  southern  portico. 

good  reason.  That  really  is  architectural  sculpture  of  the 
most  admirable  sort,  and  it  is  greatly  to  be  regretted  that 
we  have  not  more  such  instances  of  Greek  imaginative 
creation  and  good  taste  and  judgment  in  such  matters. 
One  other  but  less  fortunate  instance  will  be  named 
below  in  connection  with  the  temple  of  Zeus  at  Akragas. 


40 


GRECIAN   ARCHlTECrURE 


[Chap.  I 


There  can  be  no  doubt  that  there  existed  decorative 
sculpture  of  the  best  time,  applied  to  buildings  as  well  as  to 
those  minor  objects  which  are  preserved  in  our  museums. 


-  Ji  Uilt  ^ 


Fig.  26.     Athens  :    marble  seat  in  Theatre  of  Dionysps. 

An  admirable  example  of  such  sculpture,  given  in  Fig,  26, 
applied  to  a  fixed  marble  throne  in  the  front  row  of  seats 
of  dignitaries  in  the  theatre  of  Athens,  goes  far  to  prove 


Sec.  V]  ARCHITECTURAL   AND    FIGURE   SCULPTURE  4 1 

the  existence  of  similar  work  applied  to  temples  and  porti- 
coes. 

In  three  or  four  cases  known  to  us  the  pediments  of  a 
building  were  filled  with  sculpture.  This  sculpture  was  in 
the  round,  that  is,  the  figures  are  full  statues,  standing  free; 
the  tympanum  behind  them  serving  merely  as  a  wall 
against  which  they  were  seen.  The  most  admirable  of 
these  instances  is  also  fortunately  the  best  known,  —  the 
collection  of  statues  from  the  Parthenon  now  in  the  Brit- 
ish Museum.  These  are,  in  the  opinion  of  many,  the  most 
perfect  works  of  sculpture  known,  unequalled  in  beauty 
and  in  power.  The  archaic  yEgina  statues  in  the  Munich 
Glyptothek,  though  elaborately  restored  by  Thorwaldsen, 
are  still  of  great  value  in  the  history  of  sculpture.  The 
recently  discovered  statues  from  the  temple  of  Zeus  at 
Olympia  were  a  disappointment  to  lovers  of  Greek  art, 
who  had  hoped  to  find  in  those  pediments  described  by 
Pausanias  something  more  comparable  to  the  figures  of 
the  Parthenon.  Their  singular  lack  of  finish  and  their 
exaggerated  force  and  almost  violence  of  expression  are, 
however,  of  high  interest.  The  questions  which  arise  with 
regard  to  them  cannot  fail  to  widen  immensely  for  us  the 
field  of  Greek  sculpture  and  its  decoration  by  means  of 
colour.  Lastly,  in  the  small  treasury  building  of  the 
Megarians,  at  Olympia,  we  have  a  few  remains  of  pedi- 
ment statuary.^  In  these  examples  it  is  very  noticeable 
that,  while  the  pediment  is  selected  as  being  a  good  place 
to  exhibit  statuary,  and  while  the  deep  recessing  of  the  tym- 
panum may  well  have  been  planned  with  a  view  to  such 

^  It  is  as  yet  (May,  1896)  impossible  to  judge  of  the  discoveries  at  Delphi. 


42  GRECIAN  ARCHITECTURE  [Chap.  I 

placing  of  statuary,  these  splendid  sculptures  are  still  in 
no  sense  architectural.  Where  such  sculptures  exist,  the 
whole  building,  or  at  least  its  front,  becomes  a  pedestal 
and  a  setting  for  them.  Even  the  front  of  the  Parthenon 
in  the  time  of  its  splendour  was  not  too  rich  or  too  beautiful 
to  serve  as  a  mere  adjunct  to  the  unparalleled  groups  of 
statuary  in  its  gable.  Moreover,  the  free  use  of  colour 
aided  in  uniting  these  groups  with  the  architectural  com- 
position and  in  producing  a  harmony  which  it  is  very  hard 
for  moderns  to  understand.  The  most  noticeable  and  im- 
portant consideration  is,  however,  this,  that  the  statuary  was 
conceived  by  itself,  and  made  up  into  groups  by  itself,  with 
no  reference  to  the  building  more  than  was  necessary  for 
placing  it.  Why  this  is  not  architectural  sculpture  we 
shall  understand  better  when  we  can  compare  other  styles 
of  architecture  with  this  of  the  Greeks. 

VI 

There  are  a  few  monuments  left  us  by  the  Greeks 
which  are  especially  hard  to  understand.  Such  is  the 
great  temple  of  Zeus  at  Akragas.  When  it  was  thought 
to  be  of  a  late  epoch,  perhaps  Roman,  its  strange  character 
was  more  comprehensible ;  but  it  is  now  recognized  as  a 
building  described  by  ancient  writers  and  belonging  to  the 
best  period  of  Doric  art.  It  was  complete  except  for  its 
decoration  before  409  b.c,  and  was  almost  contempora- 
neous with  the  Parthenon.  The  ruins  have  not  been  thor- 
oughly studied,  but  it  seems  clear  that  it  was  a  wholly 
enclosed   structure  (see  the  plan,   Fig.   27),  built  in  the 


Sec.  VI]  EXCEPTIONAL    BUILDINGS  43 

semblance  of  a  peripteral  temple.  It  was  very  large,  about 
350  feet  long  and  nearly  half  as  wide,  and  all  that  space 
was  enclosed  with  solid  walls,  the  outside  face  of  which 
was  built  with  huge  semicircular  projecting  piers,  de- 
signed so  as  to  resemble  half-columns  of  the  Doric  order. 
These  were  not  real  columns  between  which  screen  walls 
were  built,  but  were  constructed  together  with  the  walls, 


Fig.  27.     Girgenti,  Sicily :  ruins  of  Akragas.     Temple  of  Zeus.     Approximate  plan. 

and  of  comparatively  small  stones,  all  bonded  together. 
The  plan  of  the  interior  is  not  perfectly  understood,  but 
the  interior  decoration  seems  to  have  included  a  number 
of  gigantic  male  figures  used  as  pillars  to  carry  an  entabla- 
ture of  some  sort.  Such  male  figures  are  called  Tela- 
mones,  and  sometimes  Atlantes.  There  are  very  few- 
instances  of  their  use  in  ancient  art.  It  is  greatly  to  be 
desired  that  these  ruins  should  be  thoroughly  explored,  the 
fragments  measured  and  compared,  and  brought  together 


44  GRECIAN  ARCHITECTURE  [Chap.  I 

in  the  juxtaposition  that  their  form  and  markings  dictate, 
and  the  original  plan  and  arrangement  of  the  building  re- 
discovered ;  for  here  is  a  gigantic  edifice  of  the  best  time 
of  art,  although  in  an  outlying  colony,  which  seems  to  con- 
tradict or  ignore  the  principles  of  design  which  we  deduce 
from  all  the  other  Greek  buildings  known  to  us. 

It  is  in  reference  to  the  temple  of  Zeus  at  Akragas  that 
the  excellent  suggestion  has  been  made  that  the  Greeks 
may  not  always  have  made  the  outer  coatings  of  stucco 
of  uniform  thickness  throughout.  It  is  well  known  that 
the  temples  built  not  of  fine  and  close-grained  marble  as 
in  Athens,  but  of  softer  stone  not  capable  of  taking  a  fine 
surface  and  of  retaining  a  sharp  edge,  were  covered  with 
plaster,  cement,  or  stucco  of  some  kind,  concealing  the 
joints,  and  bringing  the  whole  structure  to  the  semblance 
of  a  monolith,  or  to  that  of  a  solid  block  of  fine  concrete 
or  artificial  stone.  Scraps  of  this  surface-coating  are 
often  found  clinging  to  the  stone  and  sometimes  still 
holding  the  colour  which  had  been  applied  to  them.  Now, 
where  the  stone-work  left  to  us  ts  very  rough  and  coarse, 
it  is  a  natural  assumption  that  in  that  particular  case  the 
architect  had  expected  to  model  in  this  outer  coat  of 
plastic  material  all  his  delicate  ornaments  and  even  to 
bring  out  the  exact  curve  desired  in  the  echinus  of  his 
capitals,  if  not  that  also  of  the  entasis  of  his  shafts.  The 
smaller  details,  such  as  the  annulets  of  a  Doric  capital, 
would  naturally  be  left  entirely  to  the  worker  in  stucco. 
And  the  importance  of  these  considerations  is  seen  in  the 
fact  that  archaeologists  have  too  freely  taken  the  shape  of 
the  cut  stone,  as  found  at  Paestum,  Segesta,  or  Akragas,  as 


Secs.  VII,  VIIIJ  POLYCHROMY— DWELLINGS  45 

the  final  architectural  form  to  be  studied,  and  have  found 
its  inferiority  hard  to  understand. 

VII 

Painting  in  vivid  colours  was  applied  to  Greek  buildings 
generally.  We  are  not  able  to  decide  whether  some  kinds 
of  buildings  were  more  freely  painted  than  others,  nor 
whether  a  temple  was  usually  covered  all  over  with  paint- 
ing, down  to  the  very  stylobate.  But  it  seems  clear  that 
all  the  most  important  parts,  such  as  the  capitals,  the 
mouldings  which  divide  the  entablature,  etc.,  were  painted 
with  patterns  in  three  or  four  bright  colours,  —  red,  blue, 
and  yellow  or  buff,  sometimes  green,  and  often  gilding; 
that  the  sculpture  was  covered  with  painting,  which  often 
was  relied  upon  altogether  for  some  of  the  details  of  cos- 
tume and  other  accessories ;  and  finally  that  large  surfaces 
of  plain  walling,  of  the  shafts,  etc.,  were  painted  in  plain 
colour,  probably  relieved  with  borders  and  bands  of  pat- 
terns. In  fact,  a  Greek  temple,  whose  yellow-white  sim- 
plicity and  majesty  has  been  so  much  admired  by  the 
moderns,  must  be  thought  of  by  students  of  ancient  art  as 
glowing  with  colour,  the  four  or  five  positive  colours  em- 
ployed being  modified  by  light  and  shade  and  shadow,  and 
still  more  by  full  sunshine,  into  hundreds  of  delicate  tints. 

VIII 

Greek  dwelling-houses  were  very  simple  and  generally 
very  small,  throughout  the  times  of  the  purest  art,  and 
even  in  later  times  their  exterior  was  not  architecturally 


46  GRECIAN  ARCHITECTURE  Chap.  I] 

important.  But  few  and  slight  remains  exist;  but  it  is 
evident  that  with  the  Greeks,  as  generally  in  antiquity, 
and  still  commonly  in  the  lands  of  the  Mediterranean,  the 
outer  walls  were  blank  and  hardly  even  pierced  with 
windows,  and  that  all  beauty  of  design  and  all  decoration 
and  architectural  elaboration  were  kept  for  the  courts  and 
chambers  within. 

So  far  as  our  knowledge  extends,  Greek  building  of  the 
pre-Roman  epoch  knew  neither  windows  nor  chimneys. 
The  placing  of  story  above  story  is  known  to  us  only  in 
the  cases  of  the  interior  colonnades  of  temples,  as  at 
Paestum,  and  of  porticoes  such  as  that  of  Attalos  in 
Athens.  For  these  reasons  the  common  assumption  that 
Greek  houses  were  very  like  Roman  houses  and  may  be 
judged  by  what  we  know  of  the  latter  is  not  safe.  The 
Romans  used  second  stories  freely,  and  even  third  and 
fourth  stories,  and  windows,  as  was  to  be  expected. 

IX 

Greek  theatres  were  generally  arranged  upon  hillsides, 
the  funnel-shaped  hollow  being  partly  natural,  partly  dug 
out,  partly  built  up.  The  bottom  of  the  funnel  was  oc- 
cupied by  the  orchestra,  in  which  the  chorus  danced,  sang, 
and  recited,  and  the  stage  and  whatever  rooms  were  built 
behind  it  for  actors  occupied  one  side  of  this,  so  that  the 
funnel  was  completed  for  only  little  more  than  the  half- 
circle.  No  remains  of  the  stage  and  its  accessories  exist 
of  any  building  of  the  great  time :  those  which  we  possess, 
even  in  ruins,  are  of  the  time  of  the  Roman  Empire,  when  it 


Sec.  IX]       BUILDINGS  FOR  AMUSEMENT  AND  CEREMONY.     TOMBS       47 

was  natural  to  rebuild  all  theatres  in  accordance  with  the 
changed  conditions  of  theatrical  performances.^  These 
buildings  were  of  course  open  to  the  sky.  Only  the 
stage  and  its  appliances  had  even  a  partial  roof,  and  this 
would  not  rise  high  nor  occupy  much  horizontal  space. 
The  roofed  music  halls,  as  we  have  their  remains,  the 
largest  being  in  Athens,  are  of  Roman  time.  The  Stadion, 
or  running-ground,  and  the  Hippodrome,  or  enclosure  for 
horse  exercises,  were  low  and  open,  not  rivalling  the  great 
Roman  structures  used  for  similar  purposes.  Indeed,  the 
only  structures  in  or  about  a  Greek  city  which  would  vie 
with  the  temples  in  importance  and  in  height  and  archi- 
tectural display  were  some  few  of  the  tombs  which  were 
erected  in  a  suburb.  The  so-called  tomb  of  Theron  still  re- 
mains among  the  ruins  of  Akragas:  a  two-storied  structure 
without  doors  or  windows,  of  undetermined  date.  Many 
such  structures  exist  in  Asia  Minor,  in  the  neighbourhood 
of  the  ancient  cities  of  Mylasa,  Xanthus,  Limyra,  Knidos, 
and  Halicarnassos.  Some  of  these  are  roofed  like  temples; 
some  with  pyramidal  piles  of  steps ;  some  have  only 
columns  to  support  the  roof,  while  others  have  small  en- 
closed rooms,  like  those  of  temples,  within  the  peristyle. 
Some,  again,  are  without  columns,  and  are  solid-walled, 
closed  structures,  having  but  small  window  or  door  open- 
ings, if  any.  They  all  affect  considerable  height  in  pro- 
portion to  their  horizontal  size,  and  this  height  is  got  in 
general  by  a  plain   basement  of   heavy  stone-work,  upon 

^  So  great  was  this  change,  that  it  has  been  urged  upon  excellent  authority 
and  with  great  appearance  of  truth  that  the  Greeks  used  no  elevated  stage,  but 
that  all  performers  stood  on  the  level  of  the  orchestra. 


48  GRECIAN   ARCHITECTURE  [Chap.  I 

which  the  more  decorative  upper  stor)^  is  raised.  Some  of 
these  have  a  great  deal  of  sculpture,  especially  friezes, 
as  in  the  case  of  the  remarkable  tombs  whose  remains, 
brought  from  Xanthus,  are  in  the  British  Museum ;  the  so- 
called  Harpy  Tomb  and  Nereid  Tomb.  Statues  were  also 
set  between  the  columns  of  the  peristyle  or  upon  the 
corners  on  the  summit  of  the  roof. 

The  chief  of  all  these  structures,  one  famous  throuo:hout 
the  ancient  world,  is  the  tomb  of  King  Mausolos  at  Hali- 
carnassos,  erected  after  his  death  in  35 1  B.C.  The  remains 
of  this  have  been  discovered,  and  many  of  the  sculptures 
removed  to  London,  but  there  is  still  dispute  as  to  its  exact 
design.  There  seems  no  doubt,  however,  that  it  had  the 
high  basement,  the  peripteral  temple  form  above,  and  the 
pyramidal  roof.  Pliny  in  his  "  Natural  History  "  describes 
this  building  rather  fully,  and  from  his  account  it  would 
have  been  140  feet  high  and  have  had  thirty-six  columns  in 
the  peristyle.  The  order  used  was  Ionic,  it  was  all  built  of 
fine  white  marble,  and  there  were  several  hundred  running 
feet  of  elaborate  carved  friezes,  the  exact  placing  of  which 
is  undetermined. 

X 

Picturesque  sites,  such  as  steep  and  rocky  hills,  were 
common  in  Greece,  and  it  often  happened  that  these  were 
chosen  as  the  sites  for  temples  because  of  their  character 
as  the  central  and  strongest  part  of  some  city.  But  apart 
from  this,  a  real  preference  seems  to  have  existed  for 
broken  and  irregular  disposition  of  the  buildings  forming 
a  group,  as  of  the  temples,  treasuries,  and  monuments  in  a 


Sec.  X]  PICTURESQUENESS   AND   SIMPLICITY  49 

sacred  enclosure.  Thus  upon  the  Acropolis  at  Athens 
the  Propylaia,  the  Erechtheion,  and  the  Parthenon,  and 
the  buildings  which  have  been  destroyed,  as  far  as  we 
know  them,  were  all  built  at  irregular  angles  with  each 
other.  In  like  manner,  in  the  sacred  enclosure  at  Olympia, 
although  the  row  of  treasure  buildings  under  the  hillside  is 
a  crowded  row,  the  small  oblong  structures  standing  side 
by  side  on  a  platform  and  all  facing  southerly,  yet  these  are 
set  on  at  least  five  different  angles.  Moreover,  the  larger 
temples  within  the  enclosure  have  not  their  sides  parallel 
to  one  another,  nor  are  any  two  of  them  set  upon  the 
same  axis  nor  with  their  fronts  on  the  same  line.  At 
Epidauros  the  oblong  temple  is  not  set  square  with  the 
walls  of  the  enclosure  nor  with  those  of  the  great  stoa 
which  closely  adjoins  it ;  and,  moreover,  the  Tholos  is  not 
on  the  axis  of  any  of  the  buildings  whose  traces  remain. 
At  Samothrace  the  same  irregularity  of  position  prevails, 
and  four  rectangular  buildings  and  one  round  one  are 
found  to  have  stood  with  what  is  in  plan  alone  complete 
irregularity.  This  is  strangely  contrasted  with  the  ex- 
treme formality  and  uniformity  seen  in  most  of  the  public 
buildings  themselves,  as  we  know  them.  This  regular 
oblong  form  comes,  however,  naturally  and  unavoidably,  of 
the  extreme  simplicity  of  the  plan.  If  nothing  is  wanted 
more  than  two  small  rooms  with  a  recessed  entrance  to 
each  and  a  portico  around  the  whole,  a  parallelogram  is  the 
natural  shape  for  it  to  take,  and  a  single  broad  roof  in  two 
equal  pitches  comes  equally  of  the  requirements  of  the 
structure.  As  soon  as  this  simplicity  of  requirement  dis- 
appears, and  it  becomes  for  any  reason  more  natural  to  set 


50  GRECIAN   ARCHITECTURE  [Chap.  I 

the  different  buildings  of  a  group  or  the  different  parts  of 
one  building  on  different  levels  or  at  varying  angles  with  a 
common  straight  line,  these  irregularities  are  used  freely 
and  as  a  matter  of  course.  Picturesqueness  was  as  dear 
to  the  Greeks  as  regularity ;  what  they  wanted  was  effect, 
no  matter  how  obtained.  Still,  however,  there  could  have 
been  no  towers,  no  buildings  really  lofty  in  the  sense  of 
later  architectural  styles,  no  gables,  no  belfries  and  cupo- 
las, in  any  Greek  city.  And  a  reverence  for  the  horizontal 
line,  and  for  quiet  succession  of  similar  parts,  was  evidently 
in  the  very  heart  of  their  architectural  conceptions. 


CHAPTER    II 

ROMAN  IMPERIAL  ARCHITECTURE.  It  prevails  throughout 
THE  Empire,  but  Local  Feeling  and  Materials  cause  Modifications 
OF  IT.     Duration  approxdl\tely  from  50  b.c.  to  350  a.d. 

I 

The  term  Roman  Art  or  Roman  Architecture  must  not 
be  understood  as  descriptive  of  the  art  of  a  city  or  a  peo- 
ple. The  building  and  the  fine  art  of  the  Roman  people, 
while  theirs  was  still  a  small  state,  having  its  own  un- 
modified and  unbroken  traditions,  have  perished.  We 
can  only  suppose  that  they  were  very  much  like  the  build- 
ing and  the  art  which  we  know  as  Etruscan  (see  the 
introduction),  as  indeed  are  the  few  fragments  that  re- 
main. These  are  of  massive  construction  in  cut  stone ; 
but  wooden  construction  and  terra -cotta  roofing  and 
painted  terra-cotta  sculpture  were  also  certainly  charac- 
teristic of  Etruscan  architecture,  and  must  have  prevailed, 
even  in  the  city  of  Rome,  down  to  the  Sullan  dictatorship 
at  least.  Two  or  three  buildings  only  in  the  city  of  Rome 
retain  any  trace  of  even  the  later  Republic,  as  it  was  after 
the  conquest  of  Carthage  and  Macedonia,  and  the  acqui- 
sition of  supremacy  in  the  lands  of  the  Mediterranean 
Sea.     Nor  is  it  easy  to  identify  any  buildings  in  Italy  of 

51 


52  ROMAN  IMPERIAL  ARCHITECTURE  [Chap.  II 

this  epoch  as  having  been  designed  or  modified  to  meet 
Roman  requirements.  The  Greeks  of  South  Italy  and  the 
Etruscans  went  on  building  in  their  own  fashion,  down 
to  the  times  of  Augustus,  as  is  instanced  by  the  temple 
at  Cori  (see  Fig.  35). 

What  we  call  Roman  buildings  are,  with  the  possible 
exception  of  two  or  three  which  may  date  from  the  second 
century  B.C.,  those  of  the  imperial  epoch,  built  anywhere 
within  the  bounds  of  the  Empire.  These  might  be 
erected  at  the  cost  of  local  officers  of  state,  or  provincial 
Roman  governors,  or  at  the  cost  of  the  imperial  treasury, 
or  by  towns  or  districts ;  but  they  were,  with  exceptions 
to  be  noted,  of  the  same  general  character.  Thus  a  basil- 
ica, a  temple,  or  a  theatre,  built  by  a  legatus  in  search 
of  popularity  in  a  small  city  of  Gaul  or  of  the  East,  would 
be  as  like  to  one  of  the  great  basilicas  of  the  capital  as, 
in  modern  France,  a  small  village  church  or  town-hall  is 
like  a  large  city  church  or  the  Paris  Hotel  de  Ville.  The 
structure  would  be  conceived  in  the  same  general  way, 
and  carried  out  with  similar  materials  and  with  the  same 
general  relation  of  exterior  to  interior.  The  same  general 
principles  of  design,  also,  would  apply  to  the  larger  and 
to  the  smaller  structure.  This  is  true  also  of  the  Thermae, 
or  great  bathing  establishments,  of  the  imperial  palaces 
and  villas  of  private  persons,  of  the  aqueducts,  bridges, 
theatres,  amphitheatres,  tombs,  triumphal  arches,  temples, 
and  other  monumental  structures,  from  the  Euphrates  to 
the  Atlantic.  The  still  surviving  spirit  of  Greek,  Egyp- 
tian, or  Oriental  design  in  some  parts  of  the  Empire  is, 
however,  to  be  noted ;  though  hardly  to  be  treated  ade- 


Sec.  I]  BUILDINGS   OF   SOLID   MASONRY  53 

quately  here.     This  is  one  of  the  most  difficult  subjects 
in  the  history  of  architecture. 

The  Roman  administrators  had  received  from  their  Etrus- 
can and  other  ItaUan  models  a  disposition  to  use  the  arch 
and  the  vaulted  roof.  It  is  true  that  they  used  only  the 
semicircular  arch,  alike  for  wall  openings  and  for  vaulted 
chambers,  but  this  they  used  with  freedom.  They  had 
also  learned  somewhere  the  lesson  of  strong  mortar  used 
in  great  quantities  and  of  masonry  of  rough  stone  built 
with  it.  They  had  also  learned  how  to  make  excellent 
bricks,  and  in  what  ways  to  use  them.  They  had  learned 
what  concrete  was,  good  ways  of  making  it,  and  what  it 
Avas  capable  of.  Did  their  lessons  in  these  processes  of 
building  come  from  the  East,  from  Babylonia  and  Mesopo- 
tamia, from  the  then  still  existing  palaces  of  Nineveh  ?  Had 
the  Greek  architects  of  Alexandria  and  other  new  cities  of 
the  Macedonian  Empire  created  an  earlier  Byzantine  or 
Grasco-Oriental  system  which  the  Romans  followed  ? 
Whence  came  the  knowledge  and  skill  shown  in  the 
Pantheon  in  the  city  of  Rome,  built  in  its  present  form  in 
the  early  years  of  the  supremacy  of  Hadrian }  Those 
questions  are  not  to  be  answered  in  a  satisfactory  way. 
The  Pantheon,  however,  stands  uninjured  in  its  essential 
features,  an  example  of  a  perfected  system  of  building  and 
ornament.  It  is  a  cylindrical  tower,  without  other  addi- 
tion than  a  portico  of  entrance;  the  cylinder  being  143 
feet  in  diameter  within,  with  a  wall  twenty  feet  thick. 
This  wall  has,  however,  large  and  deep  niches  hollowed  in 
it,  but  closed  at  top  so  that  the  wall  (unless  there  are  con- 
cealed chambers)  is  solid  at  the  springing  line  of  the  vault. 


54  ROMAN   IMPERIAL  ARCHITECTURE  [Chap.  II 

Here,  however,  a  new  row  of  open  chambers  begins,  and 
lightens  the  construction  very  greatly.  The  vault  is  a 
hemispherical  cupola,  having  at  top  an  open  circular  eye 
nearly  thirty  feet  in  diameter.  The  interior  forms  a  single 
large  room,  lighted  from  the  eye  above  and  somewhat  from 
the  door,  and  in  no  other  way.  The  height  within  is 
almost  exactly  equal  to  the  width ;  and  the  cylinder 
occupies  just  half  of  this  height,  —  the  dome  the  other 
half.  The  exterior  shows  a  huge  cylinder  about  one  hun- 
dred feet  high  with  a  low  dome-shaped  roof  rising  above 
it ;  for  the  exterior  of  the  wall  is  carried  up  outside  far 
beyond  the  springing  line  of  the  vault.  Now  the  whole  of 
this  structure  is  undoubtedly  a  solid  mass  of  masonry, 
everywhere  composed  of  small  stones  laid  in  great  masses 
of  mortar,  as  can  be  seen  in  scores  of  ruined  structures  in 
Rome.  The  cupola  is  as  absolutely  one  piece  as  a  crock- 
ery bowl ;  and  also  it  forms  one  piece  with  the  ring-wall 
which  supports  it.  Everywhere  in  the  walls  this  masonry 
is  faced  with  brick,  and  in  the  vault  it  is  striped  with  bands 
of  brick-work,  indicating  a  preliminary  construction  of  in- 
terdependent arches,  acting  as  a  centring  or  mould  upon 
which  the  stone  and  mortar  masonry  was  laid.  As  the 
masonry  of  the  walls  was  carried  up,  the  brick  facing  was 
built  with  it,  forming  a  case  to  protect  it  while  soft,  and  a 
smooth  facing  when  it  grew  hard.  The  process  of  build- 
ing the  cupola  has  been  a  subject  of  controversy  and  can- 
not be  determined  positively,  but  there  seems  no  doubt  that 
the  brick  skeleton  known  to  exist  within  its  mass  had  an 
important  function  in  it.  The  round  opening  in  the  top 
of  the  cupola  is  held  by  a  huge  bronze  ring  which  serves 


Sec.  I]  BUILDINGS  OF  SOLID   MASONRY  55 

to  protect  the  masonry.  This  ring,  probably  connected 
with  a  device  for  closing  or  partly  closing  the  great  ocu- 
lus,  is  not  absolutely  needed  in  any  other  way,  for  no 
structure  is  as  safe  as  a  cupola.  This  one  of  the  Pan- 
theon does  not  show  a  crack ;  and  although  most  large 
cupolas  have  been  less  fortunate,  this  is  because  of  earth- 
quakes, or  because  the  attempt  to  get  a  very  light  roof 
had  been  carried  too  far.  The  Pantheon  has  always  been 
a  temple,  dedicated  to  several  or  to  all  of  the  greater  gods 
of  the  Latin  heaven,  perhaps  to  the  gods  of  the  Gens 
Julia,  —  that  family  from  which  the  first  imperial  stock 
took  its  rise,  —  and  it  differs  from  all  the  other  ancient 
temples,  which  are  known  to  us  in  the  fact  of  having  a 
vast  interior,  where  many  worshippers  could  meet.^  The 
one  purpose  of  its  designer  was,  then,  to  provide  a  great 
and  stately  room,  and  this  he  succeeded  in ;  for  even  now, 
in  its  dismantled  condition,  it  is  one  of  the  most  impres- 
sive interiors  in  the  world.  The  dome  looks  immensely 
large ;  the  height  of  the  whole  room  seems  as  great  as  it 
is,  and  yet  the  space  horizontally  is  most  imposing ;  the 
diffused  light  is  admirable,  and  the  effect  of  blue  sky  and 
passing  clouds  as  seen  from  below  through  the  great  open 
eye  of  the  cupola  is  surprisingly  beautiful.  When  there 
is  rain  and  a  cylinder  of  falling  drops  fills  the  middle  of 
the  great  room,  a  new  charm  is  given  to  it.  If,  now,  this 
noble  interior  had  been  decorated  merely  by  colour,  as  in 
mosaic  or  painting;    or   by  means  of   sculpture,  whether 

^  Some  buildings,  however,  combined  a  certain  sacred  character,  as  of  a 
temple,  with  utility  as  places  of  meeting  and  the  like,  as  the  Telesterion  at 
Eleusis,  and  some  Roman  basilicas. 


56  ROMAN  IMPERIAL  ARCHITECTURE  [Chap.  II 

in  the  form  of  reliefs  in  panels  or  horizontal  bands,  or 
in  the  carving  of  large  surfaces ;  or  in  the  form  of  full 
statuary,  groups  and  single  figures  "  in  the  round," 
the  most  being  made  of  the  niches,  and  other  con- 
structional diversities  of  surface,  as  by  moulding  their 
angles,  panelling,  and  the  like ;  or  by  lining  with  marble 
of  rich  colours  and  veining,  as,  indeed,  was  very  common 
among  the  Romans:  —  this  would  have  been  obvious  and 
natural.  It  is  in  some  such  way  that  a  Greek  would  have 
proceeded ;  it  is  in  this  way  that  Egyptians  and  Assyrians 
adorned  their  great  structures.  But  the  Roman  architect 
of  the  time  of  Hadrian  had  a  love  for  the  architectural 
forms  which  the  Greeks  had  taught  him,  and  which  he 
had  seen  in  the  Grecian  temples  of  Southern  Italy.  He 
did  not  like  an  interior  without  columns  and  entablatures, 
and  so,  though  there  was  nothing  to  call  for  them,  he  put 
up,  in  great  niches,  columns  forty  feet  high,  and  to  explain 
their  presence  he  built  all  around  the  rotunda  an  entabla- 
ture complete  in  its  three  members  and  of  full  proportion- 
ate size.  It  is  probable  that  the  present  interior  fitting  as 
shown  in  Fig.  28  is  nearly  as  in  antiquity.  This  entabla- 
ture ^  is  put  at  the  right  place  for  effective  division  of  the 
walls.  There  is  also  a  smaller  group  of  mouldings  at  the 
spring  of  the  vault.  The  great  niches  are  not  without 
good  reason  in  the  way  of  decoration.  The  columns,  too, 
divide  them  in  a  very  pleasing  way.  But  that  the  lower 
band,  the  great  entablature,  should  pretend  to  be  part  of  a 
post-and-lintel  structure,  while  essentially  an   ornamental 

'  For  the  use  of  the  entablature  and  its  origin  and  significance  see  "  Greek 
Architecture,"  Chapter  I. 


Fig.  28.     Rome:   Pantheon.     Built  about  120-124  A. D.     Isabelle's  restoration. 


58  ROMAN   IMPERIAL  ARCHITECTURE  [Chap.  II 

appendix  to  a  vaulted  structure,  was  a  novelty  in  archi- 
tectural practice.  It  was  hardly  less  a  novelty,  that  this 
entablature  should  cross  the  great  niches,  with  marble 
columns  to  hold  it  up,  and  all  for  no  purpose  but  the 
further  decoration  of  the  great  vaulted  room. 

The  portico  of  the  Pantheon,  whether  a  century  earlier 
in  date  than  the  rotunda  or  not,  is  really  Greek  in  struct- 
ure ;  that  is  to  say,  it  consists  of  columns  carrying  an 
entablature,  and  a  gable-roof  and  pediment  upon  that. 
The  form  of  this  portico  is  not  of  Grecian  beauty,  nor  is 
its  connection  with  the  huge  round  tower  at  all  well  man- 
aged, but  it  is  fine  in  detail,  with  magnificent  monolithic 
shafts  of  granite  and  Corinthian  capitals,  and  it  once  had 
a  great  composition  of  statuary,  filling  the  tympanum  of  its 
pediment.  The  exterior  of  the  rotunda  itself  was  faced 
with  slabs  of  marble  for  about  one-third  of  its  height,  and 
with  stucco  above.  The  cupola  and  the  stepped  slope  be- 
low it  —  in  short,  all  parts  of  the  roof  —  were  covered  with 
bronze  plates  heavily  gilded,  and  around  the  eye  of  the 
cupola  there  may  have  been  a  prominent  cresting  of  some 
kind,  as  the  bronze  ring  still  there  suggests. 

There  is  no  other  building  like  the  Pantheon ;  but  large 
cupolas  roofing  round  halls  are  not  rare  in  the  Roman 
world.  The  great  Thermae  seem  to  have  had  such  halls 
for  their  caldaria,  or  hot  rooms ;  indeed,  the  Pantheon  has 
been  thought  to  be  the  caldarium  of  the  Baths  of  Agrippa, 
but  that  is  disproved.  The  caldarium  of  the  Baths  of  Cara- 
calla  still  exists  as  a  giant  rotunda.  That  which  is  now 
called  the  temple  of  Minerva  Medica  was  such  another, 
but  ten-sided,  with  a  large  niche  in  each  of  the  sides,  and 


Sec.  1]  BUILDINGS  OF  SOLID   MASONRY  59 

crowned  with  a  circular  dome  about  eighty-three  feet  in 
diameter.  All  these,  and  many  smaller  hemispherical 
vaults,  were  built  in  the  same  fashion,  uniform  solid  masses 
of  masonry  made  up  of  broken  stone  and  other  material 
held  in  a  mass  of  strong  mortar. 

Besides  the  cupola,  the  barrel-  or  cradle-vault  and  the 
groined  vault  were  used  freely  by  the  Romans :  the  latter, 
sometimes,  on  a  gigantic  scale.  A  barrel-vault,  as  built  by 
the  Romans,  is  merely  a  half-cylinder ;  the  roof  of  an  or- 
dinary, round-arched  railway  tunnel  is  such  a  vault.  A 
groined  vault  is  made  of  two  barrel-vaults  crossing  each 
other,  their  rounded  surfaces  intersecting  in  sharp  edges 
called  groins.  These  groins  (see  Fig.  29)  start  off  at  the 
abutment  or  spring  of  the  vault  as  right-angled  projecting 
corners ;  but  they  begin  at  once  to  grow  more  obtuse,  soon 
they  nearly  disappear,  and  there  is  no  trace  of  them  at  all 
at  the  crown  of  the  vault.  To  build  such  a  vault  there  is 
needed  a  large  and  complete  centring  or  centre,  a  roof-like 
structure,  generally  of  wood,  having  exactly  the  shape  in 
convex  form  of  the  concave  vault  desired.  That  is  to  say, 
the  centre  is  a  model  upon  which  the  vault  is  built  or  cast, 
after  which  the  centre  is  to  be  taken  away.  This  being 
put  into  place,  within  the  walls  already  carried  up  to  the 
spring  of  the  future  vault,  the  Roman  constructor  went  to 
work  with  bricks  set  in  his  strong  mortar,  and  built  either 
a  thin  continuous  shell  or  a  network  of  narrow  bands  of 
arched  work  with  cross  stays  between  the  arches.  Then 
upon  this  brick-work,  and  encrusting  it  in  the  mass,  he 
built  up  his  solid  vault,  six  or  eight  feet  thick  where  the 
span  is  large,  and  filled  in  almost  solid  at  the  haunches,  all 


60  ROMAN  IMPERIAL  ARCHITECTURE  [Chap.  II 

of  small  stones  set  in  a  bath  of  half-liquid  mortar.  It  is  no 
longer  arched  construction  at  all,  although  it  seems  to  be 
so,  and  although  it  is  undoubtedly  a  development  of  arched 
construction :  it  is  monolithic ;  it  is  made  nearly  as  we 
make  foundations  of  concrete  or  in  some  parts  of  the  coun- 
try whole  buildings,  by  means  of  a  monolithic  process,  not 
of  separate  stones  and  bricks,  but  by  constantly  adding 
more  of  the  solid  homogeneous  mass. 

Groined  vaults  built  in  this  way  cover  in  the  great 
Tepidarium  of  the  Baths  of  Caracalla,  eighty-two  feet 
span,  of  the  Baths  of  Diocletian  nearly  as  large,  of  the 
Basilica  of  Maxentius  and  Constantine,  eighty-six  feet  span, 
and  many  smaller  rooms.  The  Basilica  of  Maxentius  and 
Constantine,  formerly  called  the  Temple  of  Peace,  is  still 
to  be  studied  on  the  northeast  side  of  the  Roman  Forum. 
Only  one-third  of  it  is  erect,  but  a  notion  of  its  structure 
and  a  sense  of  its  unequalled  magnificence  of  size  and 
mass  can  be  got  from  the  three  great  bays  w^hich  are  still 
roofed.  The  main  hall,  corresponding  exactly  to  the  nave 
of  a  three-aisled  church  in  the  Middle  Ages  and  in  modern 
times,  was  roofed  with  a  groined  vault  in  three  squares. 
This  vault  rose  high  above  the  side  compartments ;  it 
was  125  feet  above  the  pavement,  far  higher  than  the 
nave  of  any  English  cathedral,  and  nearly  as  high  as 
Cologne  and  Amiens,  although  those  buildings  are  lightly 
built,  whereas  no  Roman  structure  is  more  massive  than 
this  basilica.  The  great  vaults  of  this  and  the  Baths  of 
Caracalla  are  from  six  to  eight  feet  thick  at  the  crow^n. 
The  interior  decoration  of  these  great  halls  was  a  mixture 
of  styles,  even  more  remarkable  than  that  of  the  Pantheon. 


Sec.  I J  BUILDINGS   OF   SOLID   MASONRY  6 1 

There  was  the  ornament  of  the  vaulted  roof,  in  panels  and 
gilded  ornaments,  and  perhaps  mosaic,  and  the  lining  of 
the  walls  with  splendid  marbles ;  and  there  was  also  the 
curious  use  of  columns  and  pilasters  and  horizontal  entab- 
latures, employed  as  mere  decorative  appliances.  Figure 
29  is  a  partial  restoration  of  the  Tepidarium  of  the  Ther- 
mae of  Caracalla,  intended  to  show  its  real  construction  and 
the  way  the  ornamental  architecture  is  applied.  Modern 
familiarity  with  this  use  of  architectural  members  ought 
not  to  blind  us  to  the  essential  novelty  of  it  when  intro- 
duced in  the  buildings  of  the  Roman  Empire.  The 
Greeks  in  their  buildings,  which  were  all  post-and-lintel 
structures,  had  indeed  used  at  times,  for  ornament,  a  mere 
semblance  of  upright  supports  and  bands  resting  on  them ; 
but  these  were  used  in  connection  with  actual  post-and- 
lintel  construction,  as  a  natural  and  obvious  kind  of 
decoration.  The  Roman  structures  which  we  are  now 
considering  are  absolutely  without  any  use  of  the  separate 
vertical  post  or  of  the  horizontal  beam  or  lintel :  they  be- 
long to  a  class  of  constructions  which  were  at  first  really, 
and  which  remain  in  appearance,  arched;  that  is,  they  con- 
sist wholly  of  vaults  and  their  supports,  those  supports 
being  always  very  heavy  piers  and  walls  of  homogeneous 
masonry.  The  Roman  princes  and  governors  had  Greek 
artists  at  their  command,  and  the  Greek  was  always  a 
thinking  man  who  had  ideas  and  the  spirit  of  realistic 
design :  those  artists  would  have  worked  out  a  system  of 
decoration  for  the  Roman  massive-vaulted  halls,  as  they 
did  later  for  the  Byzantine  light-vaulted  churches.  But 
the  Roman  administrative  spirit  had  taken  up  the  idea  of 


Fig.  29-     Rome  :  Thermae  of  Caracalla.    Built  about  215  a.d.    VioUet-le-Duc's  restoration 
of  the  great  hall  (Tepidarium). 


Sec.  I]  BUILDINGS  OF   SOLID   MASONRY  63 

ornamenting  by  means  of  a  simulacrum  of  Greek  post-and- 
lintel  building,  and  nothing  else  would  do.  Accordingly, 
in  either  of  the  great  halls  under  consideration,  where  one 
of  the  groins  of  the  high  roof  starts  and  where  two  of  the 
groins  start  together,  a  column  with  its  entablature  com- 
plete, and  sometimes  a  pedestal  for  it  to  stand  on,  was  put 
in.  Figure  30  shows  the  church  of  Santa  Maria  degli 
Angeli,  made  by  enclosing  separately  a  part  of  the  Baths 
of  Diocletian.  The  great  granite  columns  and  pilasters 
are  the  original  ones,  but,  as  the  floor  was  raised  when  the 
church  was  fitted  up,  the  seeming  bases  of  the  columns  are 
only  of  wood  adjusted  around  the  splendid  granite  shafts. 
The  entablature  and  the  capitals  are  repaired  in  places 
and  pieced  out  with  plaster,  but  there  can  be  no  doubt  of 
their  being  parts  of  the  original  structure.  There  is  only 
the  bare  whitewashed  vault  overhead,  without  the  mosaic 
or  the  coffering  which  once  adorned  it,  but  except  for  this 
we  have  here  a  characteristic  Roman  interior, — the  only 
existing  example  which  can  give  the  intended  effect  of  a 
large  and  stately  one,  roofed  with  groined  vaulting. 

Less  extensive  vaults  were  used  in  buildings  of  many 
sorts.  The  corridors  in  the  great  amphitheatres  offer  ex- 
amples of  barrel-vaults,  miles  in  extent.  It  is  noticeable 
that  when  two  corridors  meet,  it  is  generally  so  contrived 
that  one  is  so  much  lower  than  the  other  that  the  vaults 
do  not  intersect,  but  that  one  vault  is  kept  lower,  so  that  it 
pierces  the  wall  of  the  higher  corridor.  It  appears  that 
the  Roman  builders  wished  to  avoid  the  meeting  of  any 
two  vaults  of  unequal  width,  or  of  any  vaults  at  any  angle 
but    a    ridit  ansjle ;  and    as  the    meeting  corridors  could 


Fig.  30.     Rome:   Baths  of  Diocletian.     Built  about  290  a.d.     Great  hall  restored 
sixteenth  century  as  church  of  S.  M.  degli  Angeli. 


Sec.  I]  BUILDINGS  OF  SOLID   MASONRY  65 

not  always  meet  on  these  conditions,  the  vaults  were  kept 
out  of  each  other's  way.^  Larger  barrel-vaults  were  used 
to  roof  the  temples,  Greek  in  general  outside  appearance, 
but  very  Roman  within,  with  which  the  cities  of  the  Em- 
pire were  adorned.  Some  of  these  were  of  considerable 
size.  The  double  temple  near  the  Colosseum,  a  long  struct- 
ure with  an  entrance  at  each  end  and  two  apses  back  to 
back,  supposed  to  be  the  temple  of  Venus  and  Rome, 
built  by  Hadrian,  has  a  width  from  wall  to  wall  of  about 
eighty-eight  feet ;  but  free  columns  stood  along  the  walls, 
and  must  have  supported  the  vault,  which,  accordingly, 
may  have  had  a  span  of  about  eighty  feet.  An  equally 
large  vault  once  covered  the  throne-room  in  Domitian's 
palace  on  the  Palatine  Hill.  Other  halls,  nearly  as  large, 
among  the  city  of  imperial  palaces  on  that  hill,  are  easily 
understood  even  in  their  ruined  condition  as  having  been 
vaulted  either  with  groins  or  without.  The  Thermae  of 
the  Emperor  Julian  at  Paris,  behind  the  Hotel  Cluny, 
still  contain  a  hall  forty  feet  square  covered  with  a  groined 
vault,  and  a  similar  hall  which  must  have  been  roofed  with 
a  barrel-vault.  In  the  Baths  of  Diocletian  are  many  halls 
still  preserving  their  roofs,  apart  from  the  church  of  S.  M. 
degli  Angeli.  Smaller  vaults  are  to  be  studied  in  Le  Sette 
Sale  and  other  rooms  of  the  Baths  of  Titus  near  the  Col- 
osseum, in  the  small  temple  or  tomb  outside  the  gate  of 
S.  Sebastian,  and  called  the  church  of  S.  Urbano,  the  so- 
called  Grotto  of  Egeria  (really  a  Nymphseum)  in  the  same 
part  of  the  Campagna,  and  in  similar  ruined  structures  all 

^  See  Romanesque  Architecture,  Chapters  IH.  and  IV.,  for  a  different  prac- 
tice. 

F  '  ■ 


66  ROMAN   IMPERIAL   ARCHITECTURE  [Chap.  II 

over  Europe  and  western  Asia.  In  short,  nearly  all  the 
vaulted  buildings  throughout  the  Empire  were  built  of 
rough  masonry  in  one  mass,  faced  either  with  brick  or 
with  small  roughly  dressed  stone.  The  exceptions  are 
apparently  those  buildings  only  for  which  large  blocks  of 
cut  stone  were  really  more  easy  to  come  by  than  brick  and 
cement  in  great  masses,  with  workmen  enough  to  handle 
these  materials  to  advantage. 


II 

For  it  is  to  be  noted  that  this  system  of  building  in  the 
solid  monolithic  mass  is  not  available  except  where  abun- 
dant means  exist.  A  large  number  of  workmen  and  an 
immense  supply  of  cement,  sand,  bricks  ready  made,  and 
wood  for  centres  and  moulds  were  needed,  and  had  to  be 
safely  at  hand  before  the  work  on  such  a  structure  should 
begin.  Wherever  stone  good  for  cutting  was  to  be  had  in 
abundance,  it  might  happen  that  buildings  wholly  of  such 
stone  would  be  easier  and  cheaper  to  erect  than  the 
simpler  and  generally  cheaper  structures  of  brick-faced 
rubble  masonry.  Thus  in  Syria,  the  many  buildings  dis- 
covered and  described  by  the  Comte  de  Vogue  are  situ- 
ated in  a  land  where  excellent  stone  is  easy  to  procure,  and 
where  transportation  of  other  materials  must  always  have 
been  difficult.^  These  basilicas  and  government  houses 
are  generally  roofed  with  wood,  and  in  some  cases  with 

1  Roman  cut-stone  building  was  generally  done  wholly  without  mortar,  as 
was  also  the  Greek  practice.  If,  however,  mortar  were  used  at  all  in  such 
structure,  the  amount  needed  would  be  very  small. 


Sec.  II] 


CUT   STONE  WITH   SOLID   MASONRY 


6-7 


slabs  or  flags  of  stone  laid  fiat  on  walls  carried  by  arches 
(which  is  not  vaulting  in  any  proper  sense),  but  where  the 
smaller  rooms  are  really  vaulted  this  is  done  commonly  in 
cut  stone  worthy  of  the   Etruscans.     It   is    less    easy  to 


e^^' 


Fig.  31.     Ntmes,  France :  so-called  Nymphseum.     Built  about  second  century  a.d. 

understand  the  cut-stone  roof  at  Nimes  (see  Fig.  31). 
Here  the  barrel-vault  over  the  Temple  of  the  Nymphs  ^  is 
standing  in  tolerable  condition  ;  it  is  entirely  of  cut  stone 
in  large  pieces,  and  is  made  up  of  separately  built  arches 
upon  which  stones  have  been  laid,  filling  the  open  spaces 


^  Formerly  called  the  Baths  of  Diana. 


68  ROMAN   IMPERIAL   ARCHITECTURE  [Chap.  II 

between  (see  Fig.  32).  This  is  a  system  of  building  often 
used  for  bridges ;  perhaps  the  designer  of  the  Nimes  vault 
was  a  bridge  engineer,  and  his  system,  although  hardly 
vaulting  in  a  strict  sense,  might  be  made  to  produce  ad- 
mirable interiors.  Another  form  of  cut-stone  vault  is 
found  in  buildings  in  Syria.  Here,  in  districts  where 
stone  is  extremely  common  and  all  other  materials  difficult 
to  obtain,  groined  vaults  and  cupola-vaults  were  cut  and  set 
from  materials  like  those  of  the  Nimes  barrel-vault.  Here, 
too,  barrel-vaults  were  used  in  combination  as  freely  as  in 
Italy,  but  in  buildings  of  very  different  plan.     The  Pre- 

torium  at  Musmiyeh,  undoubtedly 
of  the  time  of  Marcus  Aurelius, 
though  it  is  possible  that  the 
vaults  were  partly  rebuilt  two  cen- 


o   -^ 


^    .,  ,     ^.       ,       turies  later,  is  shown   in    Fis^. 

Fig.  32.     Detail  (see  Fig.  31).  _  o     ^^ 

as  it  was  drawn  by  M.  Duthoit 
about  1870.  It  will  be  seen  that  the  building  has  a 
square  shape  below  and  a  cruciform  shape  above  ;  that 
the  short  arms  of  the  cross  are  roofed  by  barrel-vaults, 
reminding  one  of  those  at  Nimes,  and  that  the  smaller 
square  in  the  middle  of  the  cross  was  roofed  by  a  square 
cupola. 

But  although  vaults  were  only  by  exception  built  of  cut 
stone,  the  exteriors  and  the  interiors  of  many  Roman  build- 
ings were  so  built,  from  the  beginning  and  down  to  the  time 
of  Constantine.  The  Roman  world  never  wholly  forgot 
the  traditions  of  the  earlier  Italian  races ;  and  the  admired 
example  of  the  Greeks  must  have  been  always  in  mind. 
Cut  stone  or  marble  was  used  for  some  few  monuments  as 


Fig.  2;^.     Musmiyeh,  Syria:    so-called  Pretorium.     Built  about  170  a.d. 


70  ROMAN  IMPERIAL   ARCHITECTURE  [Chap.  II 

the  only  material,  and  for  many  as  an  outer  or  an  inner 
facing.  It  is  to  be  observed  that  when  cut  stone  in  large 
dressed  blocks  was  used,  it  was  generally  without  mortar 
of  any  kind,  the  blocks  set  one  upon  another  with  care- 
fully worked  beds,  allowing  of  an  almost  invisible  joint. 
Such  a  stone  facing  exists  in  the  great  amphitheatres, 
such  as  the  Colosseum,  and  those  of  Verona,  Nimes,  Aries, 
and  Pola,  first  in  the  exterior  ring  wall  and  then  in  the 
principal  inner  walls,  the  facing  of  corridors,  etc. ;  in  the 
theatres,  such  as  that  of  Marcellus  in  Rome,  that  of 
Orange,  that  at  Pompeii  and  the  Odeion  at  Athens ;  in 
parts  of  the  imperial  palace  buildings  on  the  Palatine  Hill, 
in  parts  of  those  temples  which  have  a  vaulted  roof  such 
as  the  temple  of  Venus  and  Rome,  above  described,  and 
in  bridges  and  aqueducts.  The  round  tombs  of  the 
neighbourhood  of  Rome,  of  which  the  best  known  is  that 
of  Caecilia  Metella,  described  in  all  the  guide-books,  are 
built  in  this  way,  almost  solid  cylinders  of  masonry,  faced 
with  cut  stone  in  large  blocks.  The  great  mausoleum 
of  Hadrian,  made,  by  means  of  a  superstructure  added  in 
the  Middle  Ages,  a  fortress  of  some  strength  and  called 
in  modern  times  Castello  Sanf  Angelo,  or  castle  of  the 
Holy  Angel,  is  such  a  structure,  on  a  gigantic  scale.  It 
differs  from  the  smaller  ones  in  having  several  rooms  in 
the  mass  of  its  upper  part.  The  tomb  of  Caecilia  Metella 
has  had  mediaeval  battlements  added,  to  make  it  serve 
as  a  fortress  somewhat  in  the  same  manner:  the  one  and 
the  other  were  finished  originally  by  conical  roofs,  or 
perhaps  by  concentric  steps,  giving  a  general  conical 
shape.     It   will    be  seen   that  it  is    almost   impossible   to 


Sec.  Ill]  COLUMNAR  BUILDINGS  7 1 

make  a  decided  classification  here,  for  some  of  even  the 
amphitheatres  are  almost  wholly  built  of  blocks  of  stone. 
It  is  probable  also  that  many  parts  of  the  great  Thermae 
and  of  the  Basilica  of  Maxentius,  and  other  structures 
which  are  now  left  mere  masses  of  rough  masonry,  were 
originally  faced  with  cut  stone,  and  that  the  facing-stones 
have  been  carried  off  as  from  a  quarry.  A  distinction 
must  be  observed  between  such  stone  facing  as  is  here 
treated  of,  thick,  built  with  the  mass  of  the  wall,  or  even 
in  advance  of  it  as  an  important  part  of  the  structure,  and 
the  marble  veneer  put  upon  the  lower  part  of  the  outer 
wall  of  the  Pantheon  (see  p.  58).  The  latter  was  put 
up  after  the  building  was  complete,  and  secured  to  an 
original  brick  facing:  it  differed  from  the  marble  lining 
of  the  interior  of  this  and  many  buildings  only  in  being 
thicker. 

Ill 

Of  buildings  built  almost  wholly  of  cut  stone  or  marble 
except  for  the  roof,  having  little  mortar  masonry  about 
them,  and  therefore  approaching  Greek  simplicity  of 
structure,  the  chief  are  those  temples  (by  far  the  greater 
number)  which  were  not  vaulted,  and  some,  perhaps  most, 
of  the  basilicas.  A  basilica  was  a  more  or  less  enclosed 
portico ;  sometimes  walled  like  a  modern  hall,  sometimes 
open  but  for  screens  between  the  pillars  which  carried  the 
roof.  In  small  towns  they  were  small ;  that  at  Pompeii,  of 
medium  size,  was  about  70  feet  wide  by  200  long,  with  a 
central  nave  and  an  aisle  on  all  four  sides  of  it.  We  are 
told  that  these  appeared   in  the   Roman  Empire  only  as 


72 


ROMAN   IMPERIAL  ARCHITECTURE 


[Chap.  II 


Greek  influence  grew  there.  Under  the  emperors,  im- 
mense and  splendid  ones  were  built  in  Rome,  such  as  the 
Basilica  Ulpia,  built  by  Trajan,  between  the  Capitoline 
and  the  Quirinal  hills.  In  these  basilicas  there  may  or 
may  not  have  been  an  outer  enclosing  wall,  or  such  wall 
may  have  existed   in  some  places  if  not  in  others;    and 


Fig.  34.     Rome :    Forum,  Basilica,  and  Temple  of  Trajan.     Built  about  1 10  a.d. 

Restored  plan, 

such  outer  wall,  if  it  existed,  may  have  had  masonry  of 
small  stones  with  mortar  or  concrete  in  its  substance. 
But  the  building  was  chiefly  a  columnar  structure.  The 
character  of  the  edifice  being  mainly  that  of  a  great  cov- 
ered promenade  {porticus,  like  the  Greek  stoa),  it  con- 
sisted almost  wholly  of  columns  carrying  a  wooden  roof. 
In  the  case  of  the  Basilica  Ulpia  (see  Fig.  34)  the  portions; 


Sec.  Ill]  COLUMNAR  BUILDINGS  73 

was  enormous,  comprising  io8  columns,  ranged  in  double 
row  on  the  four  sides  of  a  great  inner  space,  which  may 
have  been  unroofed,  but  was  more  probably  roofed  with 
trusses  of  timber.  That  is  to  say,  the  rectangular  space 
within  the  outer  boundary,  whether  this  was  marked  by  a 
solid,  weight-carrying  wall  or  by  mere  screens  between 
the  columns,  was  about  165  by  365  feet;  the  middle  of 
this,  about  75  by  275  feet,  may  have  been  open  to  the  sky, 
but  was  probably  covered  by  a  roof  raised  high  above  the 
other  roofs,  with  a  clear-story  wall  in  which  were  windows  ; 
and  finally  the  belt,  45  feet  wide,  on  every  side  of  this,  was 
•divided  into  two  aisles  by  rows  of  columns.  This,  then, 
was  Grecian  building  in  the  main,  if  not  wholly.  It  may 
be  noted  that  the  name  appropriated  to  these  structures 
was  Greek  also,  Stoa  basilica,  or  basileia,  "  the  royal  por- 
tico." All  that  took  the  eye  was  the  majestic  distribution 
of  columns  of  Oriental  or  African  granite  or  other  splen- 
did material,  with  rich  Corinthian  capitals,  and  above 
these,  marble  architraves  carrying  ceiling-beams,  or  some- 
times wooden  girders  only,  forming  part  of  a  gorgeously 
decorated  flat  ceiling.  It  is  all  Greek  building,  adorned 
to  suit  a  wealthy  community  which  preferred  splendour 
to  simplicity. 

The  temples,  most  of  them,  were  designed  in  the  same 
way ;  at  least  above  the  foundations.  In  temple  building 
the  example  of  the  Greeks  would  naturally  be  followed, 
for  the  south  of  Italy  was  full  of  Grecian  Doric  and  Gre- 
cian Ionic  temples.  It  is  altogether  probable  that  many 
temples  were  built  in  the  different  Italian  states  after  their 
conquest  by  Rome,  and  that  these   buildings  were  of   a 


Fig.  35.     Cori,  Italy :    so-called  Temple  of  Hercules.     Built  about  80  B.C. 


Sec.  Ill] 


COLUMNAR   BUILDINGS 


75 


transition  style.  One  example  remains  for  us  at  Cori, 
southeast  of  Rome  and  very  near  Velletri.  The  front  of 
this  temple  is  shown  in  Fig.  35,  and  it  will  be  seen  that 
the  Grecian  Doric  has  been  modified  in  a  very  curious 
way, — delicately  and  with  refinement.^  This  building  is 
thought  to  be  of  the  time  of  Sulla's  dictatorship,  or  about 
80  B.C.     The  finest  Roman  imperial  temple  of  which  any 


Fig.  36.     Ntmes,  France  :    Maison  Carree.     Built  second  century  A.D. 

important  parts  remain  is  the  Maison  Carree  at  Nimes. 
This  is  almost  intact ;  it  is  a  Corinthian  temple,  about 
ninety  feet  long  including  the  portico,  resting  on  a  po- 
dium or  high  substructure  (see  Fig.  36).  The  portico  of 
six  columns  on  the  front  and  four  in  return  on  the  sides 
is  free ;  the  cella  is  about  thirty-five  by  fifty  feet  within, 
and  is  roofed  with  wood.     Engaged  columns  decorate  the 

^  See  also  the  profile  of  the  capital,  Fig.  12. 


76 


ROMAN   IMPERIAL  ARCHITECTURE 


[Chap.  II 


outside  of  the  cella,  and  these  are  made  to  range  with 
the  free  columns  of  the  portico.  The  whole  is  in  re- 
fined style,  and  not  without  great  beauty  even  in  its 
present  condition. 

Recent  examinations  with  careful  measurements,  by  Mr. 
W.  H.  Goodyear,  have  revealed  the  unexpected  fact  that 
what  seem  the  long  straight  lines  of  the  stylobate  and 
entablature  are  curved,  but  not  in  vertical  planes,  as  are 


5  0     10    20    an     40    ai 


Fig.  37.    Baalbek,  Syria :  Temple  of  Jupiter.    Built  second  century  A.D.    Restored  plan. 

those  of  the  Parthenon.  The  Roman  temple  has  hori- 
zontal curves ;  its  plan  is  not  a  true  parallelogram,  but 
each  of  the  long  sides  curves  outward  slightly.  Here  is 
refinement  which  Roman  art  has  been  thought  not  capa- 
ble of.  Similar  in  plan,  though  without  the  engaged  col- 
umns, are  the  temples  of  Antoninus  and  Faustina  in  the 
Roman  Forum.  The  temple  of  Vespasian,  near  it,  of 
which  only  a  few  columns  remain,  and  the  temple  of  For- 
tuna  Virilis,  near  the  Tiber,  are  similar  in  plan,  but  of  the 


Sec.  Ill]  COLUMNAR  BUILDINGS  yj 

Ionic  order.  The  ruins  of  scores  of  temples  of  this  gen- 
eral character  are  known,  such  as  the  hexastyle  Corinthian 
one  at  Assisi,  the  tetrastyle  one  at  Tivoli,  and  several  at 
Pompeii.  Indeed,  Pompeii,  with  its  half-dozen  prostyle 
temples  scattered  about  the  half,  or  less  than  half,  which 
has  been  uncovered  of  a  small  seaside  town,  serves  to 
show  that  these  shrines  were  as  numerous  as  the  churches 
in  modern  Italian  cities. 

The  temple  of  Jupiter  at  Baalbek  or  Heliopolis  in 
Syria  is  nearly  twice  as  long  and  twice  as  wide  as  the 
Maison  Carree^  but  is  much  ruined.  An  approximately 
accurate  plan  is  given  in  Fig.  37,  and  from  this  it  will  be 
seen  that  the  building  was  peristylar  and  octostylar,  and 
fifteen  columns  in  depth,  with  no  engaged  columns  break- 
ing the  smooth  exterior  of  the  cella  wall ;  the  entrance, 
however,  is  adorned  by  a  double  row  of  columns.  A  most 
curious  feature  of  this  peristyle  is  this,  that  the  shafts  of 
the  outer  row  of  columns  are  everywhere  smooth,  while 
the  six  of  the  inner  row  of  the  portico  and  the  two  which 
stand  within,  at  the  end  of  the  wing  walls  of  the  entrance, 
are  fluted.  As  a  separate  inner  epistyle  projects  from  the 
cella,  resting  upon  these  eight  fluted  columns,  it  appears 
that  the  deep  portico  was  considered  as  a  kind  of  pronaos, 
a  vestibule  to  the  naos  or  cella,  and  in  that  capacity  re- 
ceived a  special  decoration.  In  other  respects  this  is  a 
most  elaborately  adorned  building.  The  slightly  curved 
roof  of  the  pteroma  is  deeply  carved  with  a  most  unclas- 
sical  looking  pattern  in  hexagons,  lozenges,  and  triangles, 
with  heads  and  busts  in  the  larger  spaces,  and  the  archi- 
trave of  the  great  door  is  extremely  rich.     On  the  whole, 


78 


ROMAN   IMPERIAL  ARCHITECTURE 


[Chap.  II 


the  work  shows  good  taste ;  the  Corinthian   capitals   are 
of  great  beauty.     The  interior  of  the  cella  of  this  temple 


Fig.  38.     Baalbek,  Syria  :  Temple  of  Jupiter.     Part  of  interior  wall  of  cella. 

is  adorned  with   Corinthian    columns    in   one   order,   and 
between   them   niches   in   two    rows    (see    Fig.    t,8).     The 


Sec.  Ill]  COLUMNAR  BUILDINGS  79 

temple  of  Castor  and  Pollux  in  the  Roman  Forum  was 
also  Corinthian,  and  with  a  complete  peristyle  of  columns, 
and  also  a  pure  columnar  structure.  Such  another  was  the 
temple  of  Augustus  at  Ancyra.  There  is  no  doubt  that 
the  lost  temple  of  Trajan  and  that  of  Mars  Ultor  in  the 
Forum  of  Augustus,  and  that  in  the  Forum  of  Nerva,  were 
also  peripteral.  In  fact,  this  form,  as  the  more  splendid, 
would  naturally  be  given  by  admiring  senates  and  town 
councils  to  deified  emperors.  The  magnificent  temple 
of  the  Olympian  Zeus  at  Athens  may  be  considered  a 
Roman  structure,  because  completed  and  probably  almost 
wholly  rebuilt  by  Hadrian.  This  was  octostyle  and  dip- 
teral, and  must  have  been  of  the  very  first  rank  for  beauty 
and  magnificence.  The  few  circular  temples  of  which 
anything  is  known  were  also  peripteral.  It  is  customary 
to  speak  of  these  as  all  dedicated  to  Vesta,  but  this  is 
unwarranted.  Half  the  columns  of  such  a  round  temple 
still  stand  in  Rome  near  the  lower  Tiber  bridges ;  another 
in  somewhat  better  preservation  is  at  Tivoli.  The  well- 
known  Serapeum  at  Pozzuoli  preserves  some  traces  of  its 
former  beauty.  Remains  of  a  round  temple  of  Vesta  have 
been  found  in  Rome  near  the  Forum,  and  connected  with 
the  home  or  palace  of  the  Vestal  Virgins.  The  general 
type  of  these  buildings  is  a  cylindrical  cella  surrounded 
by  a  peristyle  in  the  form  of  a  circle.  A  curious  exception 
exists  in  Baalbek. 

The  temple  at  Rome  now  called  the  Temple  of  Concord, 
which  once  stood  behind  the  arch  of  Septimius  Severus 
and  at  the  foot  of  the  huge  and  high  building  which  faces 
the  Capitoline   Hill  on  the  Forum  side,  was  different  in 


80  ROMAN  IMPERIAL  ARCHITECTURE  [Chap.  II 

plan.  Here  a  cella  with  the  entrance  in  one  of  its  long 
sides,  and  with  windows,  was  entered  through  a  porch 
less  wide  than  the  cella.  The  great  Temple  of  the  Sun 
at  Palmyra  was  entered  in  like  manner  in  one  of  the  long 
sides.  And  we  are  reminded  by  these  of  the  Etruscan 
temple  plan,  which  was  often  square.  It  would  appear 
that  the  famous  temple  of  Jupiter  on  the  Capitoline  Hill 
was  entirely  Etruscan  in  plan,  with  three  doorways ;  per- 
haps having  three  shrines  side  by  side  under  one  roof. 
Our  general  idea  of  this  temple  is  derived  from  a  fine 
bas-relief  of  the  time  of  Marcus  Aurelius  Antoninus,  now 
in  the  Capitol  Museum,  Palace  of  the  Conservators.  This 
bas-relief  represents  the  emperor  making  sacrifice,  and  in 
the  background  is  the  front  of  a  tetrastyle  temple  with 
widely  spaced  columns  and  three  separate  doors. 

The  discussion  of  the  basilicas  and  the  Graeco-Roman 
temples  leads  inevitably  to  that  of  the  great  decorative 
colonnades,  peristyles,  and  periboloi,  which  made  splendid 
so  many  cities  of  the  Empire.  Those  of  which  the  most 
extensive  remains  exist  are  at  Palmyra  and  at  Jerash,  the 
ancient  Gerasa,  in  Syria.  The  Palmyra  colonnade  ran 
through  the  town  from  northwest  to  southeast,  three- 
quarters  of  a  mile,  with  others  crossing  it.  It  formed  a 
great  central  avenue  lined  with  these  sixty-foot  columns 
on  each  side,  and  having,  in  parts  at  least,  four  rows  of 
columns  enclosing  three  passages.  A  heavy  entablature 
crowned  these  columns ;  but  the  site  has  been  so  little 
visited  and  the  archccological  exploration  has  been  so 
slight  and  untrustworthy  that  it  is  not  safe  to  say  whether 
there  was  an   upper  passage-way  or  gallery,  or  any  roof. 


Sec.  Ill]  COLUMNAR    BUILDINGS  8 1 

Near  the  centre  of  the  long  colonnade  an  arched  structure 
marked  the  crossing  of  the  chief  side  colonnades,  and  a 
similar  very  stately  archway  closed  the  colonnade  on  the 
southeast,  near  the  great  Temple  of  the  Sun.  Each  of  the 
columns  was  made  of  several  drums  of  uneven  length,  and 
one  of  these  drums  was  worked  with  a  projecting  bracket, 
perhaps  for  a  statue  or  bust  (see  Fig.  39).  Many  of  these 
columns  still  stand  erect,  with  their  load,  and  these  form 
the  most  important  part  of  the  beautiful  panoramic  view 
of  Palmyra  from  the  Hill  of  Tombs.  Another  street 
of  columns,  Ionic  in  style,  existed  at  Gerasa,  and  this 
opened  into  an  extraordinary  semicircular  or  semi-elliptical 
place,  an  agora  or  forum,  surrounded  by  similar  Ionic 
columns. 

These  partly  standing  porticoes  and  peristyles  help  us 
to  understand  such  architectural  compositions  as  Trajan's 
Forum  in  Rome,  the  plan  of  which  is  well  known 
(see  above.  Fig.  34),  although  its  superstructures  are  im- 
measurably less  well  preserved  than  those  of  the  two  East- 
ern cities.  The  Forum  proper,  or  open  place  surrounded 
by  a  peristyle,  was  entered  by  a  renowned  triumphal  arch 
long  since  destroyed ;  and  from  this  was  entered  the 
Basilica  Ulpia,  which  has  been  considered  above  (p.  72); 
the  small  square  open  place  surrounded  by  galleries  two 
or  three  stories  high,  from  which  the  famous  pillar  of 
Trajan,  which  these  structures  enclosed,  could  be  studied 
in  its  details  better  than  now;  the  two  libraries  that 
flanked  this  small  place,  and  the  temple  of  the  deified 
Trajan  with  its  sacred  enclosures  beyond.  The  basilica 
formed  one  part  of  a  series  of  more  or  less  open  porticoes, 


'x^w^nTJ^^-^^'^""'"^  '^ ' 


«W/^-?^       -^    _„  ■ 


"~\ 


Fig.  39.     Palmyra,   Syria:    Part  of  the  great  colonnade.     Built  probably  third 

century  a.d. 


Sec.  Ill]  COLUMNAR  BUILDINGS  83 

all  alike  used  for  walking  and  meeting  under  the  shelter 
of  a  roof,  for  business  and  pleasure ;  porticoes  capable  of 
being  separated  by  screens  of  bronze,  marble,  or  even 
temporarily  of  wood,  and  capable  of  having  parts  of  them 
set  off  for  certain  special  purposes  at  special  times.  Thus 
the  semicircular  apses  of  the  basilica  are  supposed  to  have 
been  used  as  court-rooms ;  but  it  is  not  probable  that  they 
were  separated  from  the  basilica  by  solid  walls :  low  and 
open  screens  would  have  sufficed.  Curtains,  too,  may  have 
been  freely  used ;  the  example  of  the  immense  sun-awnings 
of  the  amphitheatres  shows  how  easily  a  staff  of  special 
officers  and  their  slaves  could  see  to  the  screening  off  at 
brief  notice  of  any  needed  portion  of  the  immense  roofed 
space  at  their  command.  Similar  open  porticoes  formed 
the  outer  enclosure  of  the  Forum  of  Augustus,  and  of  the 
Forum  of  Vespasian  or  of  Peace  {Forum  Pads),  More- 
over, some  of  the  temples  were  surrounded  by  peristyles 
facing  inward ;  that  is,  by  high  walls,  enclosing  a  court  or 
garden,  and  faced  on  the  inner  side  by  colonnades ;  and 
others  were  surrounded  by  open  porticoes,  consisting  in 
their  simplest  form  of  two  rows  of  columns  carrying  a  roof. 
The  temple  of  Apollo  at  Pompeii  and  the  Serapeum  at 
Pozzuoli  are  good  instances  of  one  kind;  that  of  Venus 
and  Rome  of  the  other.  Figure  40  shows  a  restoration, 
partly  conjectural,  but  trustworthy,  of  such  a  temple  and 
surrounding  peristyle  as  those  of  Pompeii.  This  would 
almost  exactly  agree  with  the  plan  of  the  temple  of  Apollo 
in  that  town,  except  that  a  triumphal  arch  forms  the 
entrance  to  the  sacred  enclosure  as  shown  in  Fig.  40. 
In    these    great   public   promenades   the  post-and-lintel 


Sec.  IV]  TRIUMPHAL  ARCHES  85 

system  of  building  reached  the  highest  development  known 
to  us.  No  one  feature  of  it  ever  attained  the  refinement 
of  the  Doric  of  the  Parthenon  or  the  Ionic  of  the  Erech- 
theion,  but,  in  the  hands  of  the  able  Greeks  whom  the  im- 
perial officers  could  call  upon,  and  their  scholars  of  the 
East  and  the  West,  a  flexible,  plastic  style  grew  up,  capable 
of  easy  adaptation  to  many  of  the  needs  of  the  great  cities. 
And  every  such  city  would  naturally  present,  side  by  side, 
structures  of  the  genuine  Roman  sort,  containing  large 
closed  halls,  rooms  and  corridors  vaulted  in  mortar-built 
masonry  of  small  stones,  and  decorated  with  a  pseudo- 
structural  display  of  columns  and  entablatures,  and  other 
structures  which  we  may  properly  call  Graeco-Roman,  in 
which  the  column  and  its  load  acting  by  mere  vertical 
pressure  were  everything,  in  which  mortar  was  not  used  for 
the  main  structure,  and  in  which  Greek  modes  of  decora- 
tion, as  by  fully  realized  human  sculpture,  largely  prevailed. 

IV 

There  were  also,  as  we  have  seen,  many  buildings  par- 
taking of  both  natures.  Among  these  last  there  must  be 
mentioned  especially  the  triumphal  arches — things  pecul- 
iarly Roman.  In  these  the  exterior  is  always  an  elaborate 
piece  of  cut-stone  work,^  with  columns  and  pilasters,  a  rich 
entablature,  and  so  much  attic  or  superstructure  as  will  give 

1  The  phrase  "cut  stone  "  must  be  understood  as  including  marble  of  different 
kinds,  though  this  is  rarely  used  for  solid  walling  in  the  city  of  Rome.  The 
stones  called  peperino  and  travertino  were  more  used  there ;  in  Pola  beyond 
the  Adriatic  Sea,  Istrian  stone  is  used ;  in  Verona  a  splendid  red  marble,  as  in 
the  famous  amphitheatre  of  that  city. 


86 


ROMAN   IMPERIAL   ARCHITECTURE 


[Chap.  II 


a  sufficient  appearance  of  weight  upon  the  arches  and 
complete  the  design.  The  mass  of  the  building  is  usually 
rough  mortar  masonry  of  the  common  sort,  and  in  this  one 
or  more  chambers  will  be  found,  where  the  thickness  of  the 
structure  is  sufficient.  The  arches  differ  greatly  in  char- 
acter. That  admirable  monument,  the  bridge  at  Saint 
Chamas,  over  which  the  highroad  to  Aix  and  Marseilles 


Fig.  41.     Saint  Chamas,  near  Aries,  France :  Bridge  with  triumphal  arches.     Built 
second  century  A.D. 

has  lain  for  two  thousand  years,  has  at  each  end  a  thin 
screen-wall  pierced  with  a  round  arch  and  strengthened 
and  adorned  with  Corinthian  columns  (Fig.  41).  These 
are  examples  of  the  simplest  form  of  a  triumphal  arch ;  a 
wall  with  a  gateway  in  it,  where  no  gate  is  needed  for  de- 
fence or  enclosure,  and  decorated  with  architectural  details 
and  with  sculpture.  Almost  as  simple  is  the  Arch  of 
Hadrian  at  Athens ;  though  this,  indeed,  partakes  of  the 


Sec.  IV]  TRIUMPHAL  ARCHES  8/ 

nature  of  an  entrance  to  an  enclosure/  The  most  elabo- 
rate form  is  that  seen  in  the  Arch  of  Septimius  Severus  in 
the  Roman  Forum,  about  eighty  feet  wide  and  nearly  as 
high,  twenty  feet  thick,  pierced  by  three  archways,  and 
with  other  archways  leading  from  the  large  central  pas- 
sage to  the  side  passages.  An  excellent  example  of  the 
usual,  one-arched  type  is  the  Arch  of  Trajan  at  Benevento 
in  Campania  (Fig.  42).  This  has  been  but  little  injured  or 
repaired,  and  is  of  the  best  epoch  of  Roman  sculpture.  It 
is  to  be  observed  that  the  broad  tops  of  the  great  arches 
were  occupied  by  elaborate  compositions  of  sculpture.  A 
gold  coin  of  Trajan  represents  what  is  probably  the  arch 
at  the  entrance  of  that  Emperor's  great  forum  (see  Fig.  34) : 
it  shows  on  the  top  a  six-horse  chariot  with  two  persons  in 
it,  and  six  colossal  statues  besides.  That  triumphal  arch 
appears  as  a  high  and  broad  decorative  construction  with 
many  columns  or  pilasters  with  niches  between  them,  and 
but  one  rather  small  archway  of  entrance.  None  at  all 
like  that  have  been  preserved  to  us.  Triple-arched 
examples  exist  at  Rome  (that  of  Severus,  as  above,  and 
that  of  Constantine)  and  at  Orange  in  France,  and  at  Pal- 
myra, though  it  is  doubtful  if  this  is  a  triumphal  arch  with 
a  special  dedication  or  merely  a  showy  gateway  leading  to 
one  quarter  of  the  city.  There  are  also  some  town  gate- 
ways, more  or  less  architectural  in  treatment :  three-arched, 
as  at  Nimes  and  Reims  in  France,  and  at  Verona,  Aosta 

1  A  view  of  this  arch  is  given  below  (Fig.  47) .  The  original  design  is  not 
perfectly  understood,  and  the  question  of  whether  the  arch  formed  a  gateway  in 
a  continuous  wall  is  in  dispute.  Inscriptions  on  the  two  faces  show  that  it  was 
considered  to  mark  the  boundary  between  the  old  Greek  city  and  a  new  Roman 
quarter. 


88 


ROMAN   IMPERIAL  ARCHITECTURE 


[Chap.  II 


i;.iPCAES  \  !UDiViWE'',VAEFlLlO 
i  NERVAE-7R!/MANOOPT!MOAVG 
CERMANlCODAClCOl£.NTlFMAX1TUE, 
POTESTrivffTi  IMPVIMCOSVI  P  P:| 
FORTiSSiMOPRiNClPiSENVrVS^- Q- Rll 


If' 


Wi 


■«,[ 

A 


Fig.  42.     Benevento,  Italy:    Arch  of  Trajan.     Built  112  to  114  A.D. 

and  Gerasa;  two-arched,  as  at  several  of  the  portals  of 
Rome,  and  at  Autun  and  Treves.  There  is  also  at  Rome 
the  very  curious  structure  known  as  the  Arch  of  Janus 
Quadrifrons  —  a  nearly  cubical  mass  pierced  by  two  barrel- 
vaults  which  cross  one  another,  so  that  it  presents  four 
archways  in  its  four  faces.  Single-arched  triumphal  arches 
in  fairly  good  preservation  exist  at  Rome  (Arch  of  Titus, 
much  rebuilt,  that  of  Gallienus,  that  of  Drusus,  and  several 


Sec.  V]  OTHER  MEMORIAL  STRUCTURES  89 

gates  where  aqueducts  are  carried  across  streets  and  the 
Hke,  of  less  moment);  at  Benevento,  as  described  above  ;  at 
Ancona;  at  Rimini  (though  this  is  thought  to  have  had 
.smaller  side  passages);  at  Susa  and  Aosta  in  Piedmont ;  at 
Pola  in  Istria ;  at  Athens,  as  described  above ;  at  St.  Remy, 
Carpentras,  Cavaillon  and  Besan9on  in  France ;  on  the 
bridge  of  Alcantara  in  Estremadura  and  at  Baparra  in 
Salamanca ;  at  El  Kasr,  in  the  oasis  of  Dakhel ;  in  the 
ruins  of  the  ancient  Bulla  Regia,  Tunis ;  and  at  Tebessia 
in  Algeria.  With  these  should  be  named  the  beautiful  two- 
arched  gateway  at  Saintes,  in  France  (see  Fig.  46,  below). 

V 

After  the  triumphal  arches  in  importance  come  the 
other  monumental  structures  of  the  Romans;  and  upon 
some  of  these  great  pains  and  great  sums  were  expended. 
They  have  lost  much  of  their  charm  in  losing  their  sur- 
roundings. Thus  the  Trajan  column  at  Rome  formed  an 
important  and  calculated  part  of  a  great  composition  (see 
the  general  plan,  Fig.  34).  The  Antonine  column  was 
very  similar  to  the  former,  and  is  evidently  a  copy  or 
imitation  of  it,  unless  both  are  copied  from  some  lost  orig- 
inal; this  also  stood  in  architectural  surroundings  of  fit' 
ting  dignity,  in  connection  with  a  large  temple  dedicated 
to  the  deified  Marcus  Aurelius,  and  other  monuments, 
now    wholly    lost,    of    the    great     Antonine    emperors.^ 

^  The  temple  and  column  of  Aurelius'  predecessor  and  father  by  adoption, 
Antoninus  Pius,  were  immediately  adjoining.  Here,  in  the  region  of  the  Corso 
and  Monte  Citorio,  must  have  been  another  series  of  imperial  fora  fit  to  be 
compared  to  that  of  Trajan  and  its  neighbours. 


90  ROMAN  IMPERIAL  ARCHITECTURE  [Chap.  II 

These  two  columns  are  each  a  hundred  feet  high,  in  addi- 
tion to  the  eighteen  or  twenty-five  feet  of  the  pedestal ;  ^ 
the  shaft  of  each  is  of  marble  in  several  blocks,  the  exterior 
covered  with  a  spiral  bas-relief  from  base  to  capital :  the 
capital  of  each  is,  very  appropriately,  a  mere  ring  of  egg- 
and-dart  moulding  below  a  heavy,  square  abacus ;  the  base 
of  each  is  a  huge  torus  or  roll-moulding,  covered  with  a 
scale  ornamentation  of  laurel  leaves  and  berries ;  the  cap- 
ital crowned  in  each  case  with  a  cylindrical  pedestal  carry- 
ing a  colossal  statue.  In  each  case  the  pedestal  served  for 
bas-reliefs  of  military  glory,  or  Roman  symbols,  the  sculpt- 
ures of  the  Trajan  column  being  still  in  place,  those  of  the 
Aurelius  column  being  preserved  only  in  sixteenth  century 
representations.  In  each  case  the  shaft  was  covered  wath 
a  long  scroll  of  figures  in  relief,  wound  twenty  or  twenty- 
one  times  around  the  shaft  in  a  slow  spiral,  and  represent- 
ing the  campaigns  and  conquests  of  the  prince.  There  is 
a  certain  lack  of  fitness  in  placing  a  portrait-statue  so  far 
above  the  eye,  and  where  the  full  light  of  the  sky  as  a 
background  will  never  let  its  outline  be  seen  unmarred. 
And  the  figures  of  the  shaft  less  than  three  feet  high  are 
not  to  be  clearly  seen  in  the  upper  parts.^  It  is  on  the 
whole  a  noble  conception  and  nobly  carried  out,  except  in 
a  certain  sculpturesque  weakness  in  the  bas-reliefs,  which 
are  not  of  the  highest  quality  of  Roman  descriptive  sculpt- 
ure.     Other  monuments  are  much  less  admirable.     The 

^  Part  of  the  pedestal  of  the  Antonine  column  is  covered  by  the  modern  level 
of  the  pavement,  and  the  rest  has  been  altered. 

2  The  whole  of  this  shaft  was  painted  in  bright  colours,  and  it  is  probable  that 
these  were  so  combined  as  to  make  the  sculpture  much  more  intelligible  from  a 
distance.     Our  modern  experience  does  not  enable  us  to  judge  of  this. 


Ub^  -w^::k^:  \i?f\ 


Fig.  43.     Saint  Remy,  near  Tarascon,  France :  Monuments.     Built  probably  third 

century  a.d. 


92  ROMAN   IMPERIAL  ARCHITECTURE  [Chap.  II 

column  of  Cussy  in  Burgundy  must  have  been  interesting, 
but  the  usual  type  is  much  too  nearly  like  a  detached  part 
of  an  organized  building  to  be  attractive.  The  very  large 
columns  at  Alexandria  ("  Pompey's  Pillar" )  and  at  Brindisi, 
as  they  now  remain,  without  their  statues  and  their  former 
surroundings,  are  not  valuable  as  monuments ;  and  others, 
like  that  of  Phokas  in  the  Roman  Forum,  are  known  to  be 
mere  fragments  torn  from  older  buildings.  Monuments  in 
which  some  independent  architectural  design  exists  are 
not  numerous.  The  one  at  Saint  Remy  in  Provence  (Fig. 
43)  is  perhaps  the  most  effective :  it  is  also  in  very  fair 
preservation.  The  tombs  of  Roman  time  in  the  East  are 
rather  Greek  than  Roman  in  design,  and  need  no  special 
mention  here  except  as  specimens  of  the  complete  and 
ready  return  to  Greek  forms  whenever  no  practical  need 
was  to  be  consulted. 

VI 

The  stone  exteriors  of  many  Roman  buildings  show 
that  curious  use  of  columns  and  entablatures  as  mere 
ornaments,  to  which  in  interior  work  attention  has  been 
called  above.  The  Theatre  of  Marcellus  at  Rome  gives  a 
good  instance  of  this,  and  of  its  complete  lack  of  connection 
with  the  construction  (Fig.  44).  Here  is  an  outer  ring- 
wall  of  a  very  large  and  massive  structure.  That  outer 
wall  consists  of  piers  and  arches  of  great  thickness  and 
solidity,  built  as  to  the  exterior  of  blocks  of  cut  stone,  in 
this  case  travertine,  and  probably  once  covered  with  fine 
stucco.  The  outer  face  of  each  pier  is  rounded  out  in  the 
middle  to  the  semblance  of  half  a  column,  although  the 


Fig.  44-     Rome  :  Theatre  of  Marcellus.     Built  about  30  B.C.     VioUet-le-Duc's 

restoration. 


94  ROMAN  IMPERIAL  ARCHITECTURE  [Chap.  II 

joints  of  the  stones  run  continuously  through  it.  Upon 
this  column-Hke  buttress,  as  it  may  be  called,  there  is  set  a 
purely  ornamental  string-course,  imitating  an  entablature, 
and  appearing  to  rest  upon  the  apparent  columns,  although 
really  a  part  of  the  wall  and  resting  on  the  arches.  The 
proportions  of  base,  shaft  and  capital,  and  of  architrave 
frieze  and  cornice  are  those  which  would  have  been  used 
in  a  temple  or  basilica  or  tomb,  where  they  would  have  been 
parts  of  the  real  structure.  It  is  to  be  observed  that  such 
engaged  columns  are  not  wholly  unknown  in  Greek  build- 
ing ;  but,  except  at  the  temple  of  Akragas  (see  p.  42),  they 
are  extremely  rare,  and  all  the  instances  that  we  know 
belong  to  very  late  times.  In  Roman  work  they  occur 
continually.  They  are  a  favourite  decoration  of  the  walls 
of  the  cellse  of  temples,  on  the  outside;  and  in  such 
cases  they  are  set  about  as  far  apart  as  they  would  be 
in  a  real  colonnade.  In  the  Theatre  of  Marcellus  the 
same  proportions  of  column  to  entablature  are  preserved, 
but  the  columns  are  set  much  wider  apart.  In  fact,  the 
whole  composition  of  two  adjacent  columns,  the  entablature 
which  they  seem  to  carry,  the  two  pilasters  set  up  against 
the  columns,  and  the  arch  which  these  pilasters  carry, 
has  been  called  the  Roman  Order.  Often  a  free  column 
with  a  pilaster  behind  it  replaces  the  engaged  column, 
and  then  the  entablature  has  to  project  much  more.  This 
greater  projection  of  a  heavy,  continuous,  horizontal 
member  was  felt  to  be  an  objection,  and  Fig.  45  shows 
a  modification  of  the  scheme,  the  entablature  not  con- 
tinuous, but  breaking  out  in  what  are  called  ressauts  by 
the  French  writers.     This  recommends  itself  to  reason.    If 


Sec.  VI] 


ARCHITECTURAL  DETAILS 


95 


the  entablature  is  to  be  used  as  a  merely  ornamental  band, 
it  is  well  to  give  it  emphasis  at  the  points  where  the 
columns  come,  and  to  reinforce  and  give  character  to 
the  capitals  by  this  crowning  of  their  abaci.  But  out 
of  it  came  that  very  odd  result  seen  in  Fig.  29,  where 
the  entablature  is  set  upon  the 
capital  and  there  alone,  as  if  it 
were  a  necessary  part  of  it. 

To  return  to  the  Theatre  of 
Marcellus  (Fig.  44),  it  should 
be  mentioned  here,  in  advance 
of  the  chronological  sequence  of 
events,  that  this  decoration  by 
means  of  real  arches  and  im- 
posts, flanked  and  framed  by  a 
make-believe  post-and-lintel  archi- 
tecture, appearing  in  full  devel- 
opment before  the  Christian  era, 
and  prevailing  for  not  more  than 
four  hundred  years,  was  taken 
up  again  in  the  fifteenth  century, 
in  direct  and  confessed  imitation 
of  the  Roman  imperial  buildings, 
and  since  then  has  never  been  out  of  use  in  Western 
Europe.  It  is  not  to  be  forgotten,  however,  that  this 
imitation  of  Roman  work  had  primarily  a  literary  and  a 
social  cause,  and  was  not  altogether  or  chiefly  an  agree- 
ment of  artists  to  follow  what  was  thought  fine  in  art 
(see  the  chapters  on  the  Renaissance).  Still,  there  can  be 
no   doubt   that  that   system    of   design  for  walls  pierced 


Fig.  45.  Rome  :  Arch  of  Constan- 
tine.  Detail  of  the  entablature, 
315  A.D. 


96  ROMAN   IMPERIAL  ARCHITECTURE  [Chap.  II 

with  openings  which  has  been  so  generally  popular  for 
four  hundred  years  contains  elements  of  beauty;  it  tends 
to  be  dignified,  serene,  and  stately ;  it  lends  itself  to  that 
which  is  the  most  loved  by  persons  not  very  sensitive  to  the 
delicacies  of  fine  art,  the  grandiose ;  it  makes  a  building 
look  costly  and  like  a  palace.  And  it  is  probable  that 
it  appealed  to  the  Roman  world  in  the  same  way ;  although 
there  is  curious  evidence  that  its  popularity  steadily  de- 
clined as  the  Roman  world  grew  older  (see  below). 

Another  innovation  was  the  free  use  of  the  pedestal. 
The  need  of  this  must  have  been  evident  as  soon  as 
columns  invented  as  parts  of  temple  colonnades  were  to 
be  used  as  parts  of  civic  and  domestic  buildings.  Often 
it  would  be  necessary  to  elongate  a  supporting  member 
beyond  all  proportion  for  a  column.  It  was  natural  to 
have  recourse  to  a  column  perched  upon  a  square  block 
with  its  own  crowning  member  and  base.  Still  another 
innovation  was  the  free  use  of  pilasters  as  exclusively 
decorative  features,  to  break  up  a  blank  wall  into  many 
bays.  Good  examples  of  this  are  seen  in  the  topmost  story 
of  the  Flavian  Amphitheatre  or  Colosseum  at  Rome,  and 
in  the  Temple  of  the  Sun  at  Palmyra.  This  feature  was 
apparently  much  less  common  than  it  was  long  afterwards, 
in  the  neo-classic  styles. 

VII 

It  has  been  said  above  that  there  are  many  instances 
of  a  rejection,  on  the  part  of  the  Roman  builders,  of  what 
is  generally  assumed  to  be  their  universally  adopted  deco- 
rative style.     These  exceptions  are  found   in  all  parts  of 


Sec.  VII] 


BUILDINGS   OF   EXCEPTIONAL   STYLE 


97 


the  Empire.  The  double  gateway  of  Saintes  in  western 
France  (Fig.  46),  the  arched  doorways  upon  the  bridge  at 
Saint  Chamas  (see  Fig.  41,  above),  the  gate  of  Hadrian  (Fig. 
47)  at  Athens,  the  pretorium  of  the  ancient  Lamboesis  at 


*iiE?5^^%t^'^^»^^ 


Fig.  46.     Saintes,  near  west  coast  of  France :  Gateway  formerly  standing  on  Roman 
bridge.     Built  first  century  A.D. 

Lambese  in  Algeria  (Fig.  48),  the  city  gate  of  Perugia,  and 
those  of  Autun,  Trier  (Treves),  Verona,  and  Rome  itself 
are  instances  of  this  constant  tendency  to  break  away 
from  what  may  have  been  the  orthodox  Augustan  style,  — 


98 


ROMAN   IMPERIAL  ARCHITECTURE 


[Chap.  II 


the  style  recognized  in  the  capital.  The  Basilica  of  Shakka 
and  the  pretorium  or  palace  at  the  same  place,  engraved 
and  described  in  the  Comte  de  Vogue's  book,  are  not  later 


Fig.  47.     Athens,  Greece :  Gateway  of  Hadrian's  quarter.     Built  about  120  A.D. 

than  the  middle  of  the  third  century  a.d.  No  doubt 
the  great  officers  of  Aurelian  saw  them  both  complete,  and 
that  warlike  emperor  may  have  visited  them  himself  during 
his  campaign  against  Zenobia,  which  closed   in   273.     In 


Sec.  VII] 


BUILDINGS   OF  EXCEPTIONAL   STYLE 


99 


these  two  structures  the  system  of  building  in  cut  stone 
spoken  of  above  (pp.  66  £f.)  is  carried  out  completely,  and 
here  there  are  no  engaged  columns,  no  pilasters  used  for 


{_      illlI'V- 


^^: 


/«?^- 


Fig.  48.     Lambese,  Algeria  :  Pretorium  of  the  ancient  Lamboesis.     Built  second 

century  A.D. 

decoration,  no  entablatures  pretending  to  be  part  of  the 
structure  of  the  edifice :  everything  is  designed  according 
to  the  needs  of  the  builders  and  the  conditions  of  the 
structure.      A    similar   style    of    building    in    nearly   con- 


lOO 


ROMAN   IMPERIAL  ARCHITECTURE 


[Chap.  II 


ijiilD- 


Fig.  49.     Spalato,  Dalmatia :  Palace  of  Diocletian.     Built  about  305  A.D. 
Arcade  of  great  court. 

temporary  structures  is  shown  in  Figs.  46,  47,  and  48. 
Certainly  here  the  pseudo-Greek  system  of  design  is  suffi- 
ciently ignored ;  but  at  the  same  time  and  in  the  very 
heart  of  the  Empire  the  palace  of  Diocletian  was  built 
at  Salona  on  the  Illyrian  coast,  and  in  this  the  work  of 
the  innovator  is  seen  side  by  side  with  the  official  system 
of  design.  In  the  south  outer  wall  of  this  vast  structure 
there  is  carried  out  the  recognized  formal  order  of  orna- 


Sec.  VIII]  THE  "FIVE  ORDERS"  1 01 

mental  columns  carrying  an  ornamental  entablature,  while 
the  real  openings  between  are  arches.  In  its  north  wall 
are  columns  carrying  archivolts  which  spring  directly  from 
their  capitals,  and  in  the  great  courtyard  (see  Fig.  49)  this 
last-named  feature  is  repeated  all  along  both  sides,  and  on 
a  great  scale,  while  at  the  end  is  an  entablature  resting 
horizontally  on  the  capitals  of  the  columns,  but  bent  into 
an  archivolt  at  the  middle  intercolumniation.  In  several 
parts  of  the  palace  there  are  large  columns  supported  on 
boldly  projecting  corbels,  supporting  in  their  turn  arches 
above. 

It  is  probable  that  this  disposition  to  introduce  varieties 
of  design  into  the  official  Roman  structures  was  stronger 
in  the  third  century  than  in  the  first.  In  other  words,  it  is 
probable  that  a  new  style  was  in  process  of  slow  and  nat- 
ural development.  Roman  archaeology,  in  the  sense  of  the 
study  of  the  whole  Empire,  and  not  of  the  city  and  its  sur- 
roundings alone,  is  still  in  its  infancy,  but  it  is  probable  that 
if  the  civic  buildings  of  the  third  and  fourth  centuries,  from 
Britain  and  Mauritania  to  the  Euphrates,  were  compared, 
and  their  dates  ascertained  by  inscriptions  and  by  the  com- 
parison of  one  with  another,  it  would  be  recognized  that  a 
late  Roman  imperial  style  was  in  full  process  of  formation. 

VIII 

In  one  respect,  however,  the  architecture  as  late  as  the 
middle  of  the  fourth  century  showed  no  great  change  from 
that  of  the  first.  The  orders  which  were  used  in  the  regu- 
lar Graeco-Roman  style  of  the  centre  and  also  in  this  mixed 


I02  ROMAN  IMPERIAL  ARCHITECTURE  [Chap.  II 

style  of  the  Provinces  were  the  same  as  those  used  in  act- 
ual post-and-beam  construction  at  the  same  time.  They 
were,  all  but  one,  very  different  from  those  invented  by  the 
Greeks.  The  Roman  builders  are  generally  said  to  have 
devised  five  different  orders:  one  being  copied  from  the 
Greek  Ionic  (see  p.  22),  but  badly  copied,  with  much  of  its 
grace  lost ;  another  very  closely  copied  from  the  Greek 
Corinthian,  and  indeed  a  legitimate  development  of  it  (see 
p.  29) ;  two,  called  the  Tuscan  and  Doric,  being  only  partly 
Greek  in  origin  ;  while  finally  the  Composite  was  a  modifi- 
cation of  the  Corinthian  order.  It 
would  be  more  historically  correct 
to  say  that  the  Romans  found 
among  the  Etruscans  an  order 
which  was  very  plain,  an  awkward 
modification  of  the  Doric  of  Greece, 
and  that  from  this  the  Tuscan  and 
the  Roman  Doric  were  derived ; 
that  the  Ionic  order  they  took  from  the  Greeks  and 
spoiled;  that  the  Corinthian  order  they  took  from  the 
Greeks  and  improved ;  and  that,  when  even  this  rich  order 
proved  not  varied  and  fantastic  enough,  they  invented  a 
score  of  modifications  of  it,  one  of  which  we  call  compos- 
ite. It  seems  to  be  admitted  that  the  earliest  use  of  the 
composite  is  in  the  Arch  of  Titus  (see  Fig.  50).  The 
capitals  with  figures  of  men  and  animals  in  them,  all  of 
which  are  Corinthian  in  general  character,  may  be  taken 
as  belonging  to  the  Corinthian  style,  exactly  in  the  same 
way  that  the  composite  belongs  to  it.  Of  these  varied 
capitals,   fine  specimens   exist   in  the    Lateran    Museum, 


Sec.  VIII] 


THE   "FIVE   ORDERS' 


103 


probably  taken  from  the  Forum  of  Trajan  (see  Figs.  51 
and  52).  A  remarkable  keystone  in  the  Arch  of  Titus  is 
decorated  with  an  armed  and  helmeted  figure  holding  a 


Fig.  51. 

globe,  and  a  capital  engraved  by  Professor  Durm  has  four 
figures  of  Victory  at  the  angles  and  four  trophies  of 
armour  in  the  sides,  among  the  leafage.  All  this  is  in 
modification  of  the  Corinthian  order  and  its  variant,  the 
composite. 


I04 


ROMAN   IMPERIAL  ARCHITECTURE 


[Chap.  II 


Fig.  52. 


The  Theatre  of  Marcellus,  built  30  b.c,  is  good  early 
Roman  work;  the  Doric  order  of  that  structure  may  be 

seen  in  Fig.  44. 
The  Tuscan  is 
a  mere  simplify- 
ing of  the  Ro- 
man Doric.  It 
is  not  easily  de- 
fined otherwise 
than  as  a  Doric 
wdthout  its  tri- 
glyphs  and  with- 
out any  flutings 
of  the  shaft,  al- 
though columns  of  early  Etruscan  make  are  apt  to  be 
fluted.  No  Roman  buildings  of  any  importance  are 
built  entirely  in  Tuscan,  and  but  few  in  Doric  ;  each  of 
these  orders  is  used  mainly  for  the  lowest  of  several 
stories.  The  Roman  form 
of  Ionic  suffers  greatly  by 
the  extreme  thinness  of  the 
capital,  giving  it  the  look  of 
having  been  pressed  flat  by 
the  superincumbent  weight, 
the  volutes  looking  therefore 
as  if  squeezed  out  of  the 
capital.  A  kind  of  mongrel 
Ionic  is  to  be  seen  in  the 
temple  of  Saturn  in  the  Roman  Forum  (Fig.  53),  or  this 
might   be  called  a  composite    of   Doric  and  Ionic.     The 


Fig.  S3. 


Sec.  IX] 


ARCHITECTURAL   SCULPTURE 


105 


Corinthian  order  was  the  favourite  one  with  the  Romans, 
and  it  is  beautiful  when  used  as  in  the  Pantheon.  Per- 
haps the  finest  existing  building  of  the  pure  Corinthian 
order  is  the  temple  at  Nimes  called  the  Maison  Carree, 
and  already  described,  although  the  capitals  and  columns 
of  several  great  buildings  in  Rome  are  equally  fine  with 
those  of  Nimes,  and  much  larger.  Its  sculptured  deco- 
ration is  very  elaborate,  and  yet  it  is  not  overloaded :  it  is 
restful ;  there  is  no  Roman  work  known  to  us  more  agree- 
able or  more  worthy  of  study  (see  p.  75). 


IX 

Splendid  fragments  of  friezes  sculptured  in  scroll-work 
and  in  singularly  free  natural  leafage  have  been  preserved ; 


Fig.  54. 

those  in  the  Lateran  Museum  are  the  least  injured,  and 
are  very  accessible  (see  Fig.  54).  It  must  be  supposed 
that  these  were  all  associated  with  the  Corinthian  order  in 
one  of  its  many  varieties. 

Sculpture  of  human  subject  is,  also,  in  Roman  practice, 
associated  with  the  Corinthian  more  than  with  any  other 


I06  ROMAN  IMPERIAL  ARCHITECTURE  [Chap.  II 

order.  The  broad  frieze  of  the  Forum  of  Nerva  ("  Forum 
Transitorium ")  was  filled  with  scenes  of  incident  and 
action,  in  high  relief,  and  still  larger  figures  decorated  the 
attic  above  the  cornice.  The  Arch  of  Benevento,  built  in 
honour  of  Trajan,  shows  large  surfaces  covered  with  bas- 
reliefs,  arranged  in  two  broad  bands  and  several  narrow 
ones  (see  Fig.  42).  The  Arch  of  Marcus  Aurelius  once 
bore  the  huge  upright  bas-reliefs  representing  the  Em- 
peror in  different  scenes  of  his  official  life,  with  soldiers, 
conquered  enemies,  and  other  personages.  In  the  open 
arches  of  the  great  amphitheatres  and  between  the  col- 
umns of  tombs,  statues  were  set  up;  but  these  are  hardly 
to  be  considered  architectural  sculpture.  The  Roman  great 
ones  were  fond  of  statues ;  they  brought  them  from  Greece 
by  thousands,  and  had  their  own  portrait-statues  sculpt- 
ured by  hundreds,  but  these  were  set  up  on  pedestals  in 
public  and  private  places,  in  doors  and  out  of  doors,  as  well 
as  in  the  outer  walls  of  buildings.  So  far  as  we  know 
Roman  architecture,  its  sculpture  was  mainly  in  bas-relief. 
It  is  to  be  noted  how  far  this  Roman  practice  went 
beyond  the  Greek  examples  in  combining  representative 
or  expressional  and  decorative  sculpture.  Figures  42,  43, 
51,  52,  and  54  show  something  of  this;  but  recently  dis- 
covered stuccoes,  of  which  many  applied  to  walls  and 
vaulted  roofs  are  known  since  1883,  show  it  carried  still 
farther,  and  we  see  in  these  so  close  a  resemblance 
to  Pompeiian  and  other  wall-painting  that  it  becomes 
tolerably  certain  that  such  figure-sculpture  was  common 
as  an  ornament.  Many  instances  of  it,  indeed,  are  known, 
though   most  of   the   buildings  and  tombs  where  it   was 


Sec.  X]  ARCHITECTURE  OF  INTERIORS  lO/ 

found  have  been  destroyed.  The  question,  what  develop- 
ment Greek  architecture  would  have  had  if  Greece  had 
been  peaceful  and  politically  and  socially  strong,  can  be 
partly  answered  by  studying  what  we  call  Roman  art ;  and 
this  is  one  of  the  great  charms  that  that  art  has  for  us. 

X 

The  chief  merit  and  value  of  that  art  is,  however,  in  its 
being  the  earliest  to  deal  with  the  interior  as  a  chief 
object.  It  was  the  first  social  architecture  in  the  sense 
that  it  brought  people  together  under  a  roof,  in  large 
numbers  and  for  definite  purposes ;  and  that  it  knew  how 
to  adorn  the  roof  that  covered  and  the  walls  that  enclosed 
them  within  as  well  as  without.  The  contrast  between 
the  Egyptian  halls,  crowded  with  columns,  or  the  Assyrian 
narrow  and  passage-like  rooms,  or  the  Greek  rooms  of 
assembly,  small  and  simple  or  else  (as  at  Eleusis)  crowded 
also  with  columns,  and  the  huge,  permanent,  vaulted  halls 
of  the  Roman  Empire,  is  impossible  to  overestimate.  In 
this  as  in  other  ways  the  imperial  days  were  the  begin- 
nings of  modern  times. 

These  great  interiors  were  adorned  with  such  semblance 
of  a  column  and  entablature  system  as  has  been  described 
above,  and  by  the  richness  of  material  in  these  very  col- 
umns and  their  associated  parts,  with  linings  of  walls  by 
similar  rich  materials,  with  relief  sculpture,  and  with  paint- 
ing. Wall-painting  cannot  be  treated  here  (but  see  p.  109), 
and  sculpture  has  been  touched  upon.  The  use  of  stones 
of  great  beauty  for  pilasters  and  columns,  for  the  lining 


I08  ROMAN   IMPERIAL  ARCHITECTURE  [Chap.  II 

of  large  surfaces  of  wall,  and  for  pavements,  was  peculiarly 
common  in  the  capital  itself.  To  decorate  the  buildings 
of  Rome  shiploads  of  splendid  marbles,  alabasters,  ser- 
pentines, and  granites  came  from  the  provinces.  But 
assuredly  what  was  so  common  in  the  capital  would  be 
not  unknown  in  the  provincial  cities.  Glass  was  used, 
too,  both  in  mere  mingling  of  colour,  as  if  in  imitation  of 
marble,  and  in  relief  patterns,  subjects  of  human  interest, 
plant  form,  and  the  like ;  very  rich  tiling  in  solid  opaque 
glass.  And  it  is  to  be  observed  that  in  these  decorations, 
as  in  all  Roman  practice,  to  build  first,  and  to  add  the 
decorations  afterward,  was  the  rule. 

A  peculiarity  of  the  Roman  work  was  its  economy  and 
actual  cheapness.  In  comparison  with  its  size  and  mass, 
all  the  perfected  building  of  the  Empire  must  have  been 
wonderfully  inexpensive.  The  imperial  architects  brought 
together  a  large  force  of  men  and  an  abundance  of  choice 
material ;  they  knew  how  to  finish  their  structure  out  of 
hand  and  have  done  with  it,  and  how,  thereafter,  to  set  to 
work  in  its  decoration  an  army  of  plasterers,  marble- 
workers,  painters,  gilders,  bronze-founders  and  chasers, 
and  sculptors  of  marble  and  of  wood.  They  got  their 
money's  worth ;  there  was  but  little  experimenting  and  no 
delay;  delicacies  of  sentiment  and  refinements  of  design 
were  not  their  affair;  they  worked  quickly  and  economi- 
cally. Their  custom  of  building  first  and  ornamenting 
their   buildings    afterward   would    naturally   help    toward 


Sec.  XII]  DWELLINGS  109 

these  results.  It  is  a  curious  result  of  this  that  Roman 
architecture  has  prevailed  over  the  European  world  ever 
since  1550  (in  Italy  since  1450),  and  that  the  architects 
generally  have  liked  nothing  so  much ;  while  the  archaeol- 
ogists of  art,  being  students  of  the  refined  and  the  expres- 
sional  in  sculpture,  and  caring  little  for  building  and  for 
the  stately  and  the  vast,  give  all  their  attention  to  Gre- 
cian remains.  Less  is  known  of  Roman  than  of  Greek 
architecture,  although  the  Roman  remains  are  more 
abundant,  and  are  scattered  over  the  Mediterranean 
world,  and  even  as  far  north  as  England  and  North 
Germany. 

XII 

It  is  necessary  to  mention  the  dwellings  of  the  Romans, 
and  to  state  that  they  have  not  much  information  to  give 
us  as  to  the  architectural  art  of  the  time.  Unquestion- 
ably the  way  in  which  a  Roman  atrium  or  peristyler 
garden  was  made  an  architectural  work  of  art  would  be  of 
great  use  to  our  studies,  if  many  of  such  buildings  were 
preserved  in  tolerable  condition ;  but  so  far  as  we  know 
them,  there  are  only  a  few  stuccoed  columns  in  Hercula- 
neum  and  some  mosaic-covered  columns  and  niches  found 
at  Pompeii  that  can  aid  us.^  A  fuller  study  of  Roman  art 
would  require  careful  analysis  of  these  details. 

The  plan  and  disposition  of  the  rooms  of  the  smaller 

^  The  Roman  system  of  decorative  painting  of  interiors  is  much  better 
understood.  Moreover,  some  of  the  paintings  which  are  preserved  suggest 
much  concerning  Roman  decorative  work  of  a  more  strictly  architectural  char- 
acter, and  a  careful  analysis  of  these  representations  by  a  competent  architect 
may  yet  provide  answers  to  many  questions. 


no  ROMAN  IMPERIAL  ARCHITECTURE  [Chap.  II 

Roman  houses  is  known  to  us  from  Pompeii  almost  exclu- 
sively. The  arrangement  of  larger  residences  is  to  be 
studied  at  Pompeii,  in  the  ruins  of  Hadrian's  villa  at 
Tivoli,  on  the  Palatine  Hill  at  Rome,  and  in  the  plans 
made  from  measurements  underground  and  from  inference 
at  the  famous  villa  of  Herculaneum,  where  so  much  splen- 
did sculpture  has  been  found,  but  which  still  lies  under 
thirty  feet  of  tufa.  The  development  of  architecture  de- 
pends not  at  all  upon  such  peculiarities  of  planning,  which 
are  rather  of  sociological  or  anthropological  interest. 

xni 

The  gigantic  amphitheatres,  theatres,  circuses  of  the 
great  Empire  are  to  be  considered  somewhat  as  we  con- 
sider the  residences  of  the  time.  If  we  could  get  to 
know  them  well,  —  if  one  of  them  or  even  a  small  part 
of  one  of  them,  such  as  the  circus  of  Nero,  or  the  Cir- 
cus Maximus,  or  the  amphitheatre  at  Capua  or  that  at 
Verona,  remained  in  its  original  condition,  —  the  aid  to 
our  architectural  knowledge  might  be  considerable.  We 
have,  at  Verona  and  Pola,  and  more  especially  at  Nimes 
in  France,  and,  so  far  as  the  mere  exterior  goes,  at  Rome, 
much  of  the  original  ordonnance  of  columns  and  entabla- 
tures, and  a  great  deal  of  the  vaulting,  the  walling,  etc. ; 
moreover,  there  is  much  to  be  seen  of  the  masonry  of  the 
circus  of  Maxentius,  southeast  of  Rome,  on  the  old  Ap- 
pian  Way;  and  these  matters  have  been  much  before  us  in 
our  previous  enquiry.  What  the  finished  and  fitted-up 
place  of   amusement  would  give    us,  if   we  could  see   it, 


Sec.  XIII]  THEATRES,  CIRCUSES,  ETC.  1 1 1 

would  be  a  comprehension  of  the  Roman  scheme  of  dec- 
oration. The  low  double  wall  of  the  spina,  with  its  long 
platform  supporting  obelisks,  statues,  trophies  of  arms, 
and  the  conical  metae;  the  wall  of  the  podium  below  the 
lowest  tier  of  seats ;  the  towering  structure  above  the 
starting-point  of  the  horsemen  and  chariots;  the  imperial 
box,  and  the  topmost  colonnade,  which,  in  some  circuses 
and  amphitheatres  at  least,  dominated  the  whole  open 
auditorium,  were  all  charged  with  rich  ornament  in 
marble  and  bronze,  gilded  and  coloured;  and  much 
more  temporary  and  movable  ornament  was  added  on 
great  occasions.  All  this  is  lost,  and  it  is  only  con- 
struction and  the  general  scheme  of  architectural  design 
of  the  exterior  that  remain  to  us  of  any  of  these  great 
and  sumptuous  structures. 

The  tentative  restorations  by  Gnauth,  Schill,  Lauser, 
Isabelle,  Simil,  and  Viollet-le-Duc  are  of  great  interest  to 
students  of  history,  and  to  students  of  architectural  art 
may  be  useful  as  suggestions  of  what  may  have  been ; 
but  the  beginner  ought  not  to  take  them  indiscriminately 
as  representing  ascertained  fact.  In  authenticity  they 
differ  greatly  among  themselves.  Older  restorations  — 
those  made  before  1850,  to  speak  roughly  —  ought  to  be 
avoided:  many  of  them,  notably  those  of  Canina,  are  ab- 
solutely without  value. 


CHAPTER   III 

THE  ARCHITECTURE   OF  EUROPE  350  TO  750  A.D.     It  is 

EVERYWHERE    THE    ROMAN    IMPERIAL    BuiLDING    MODIFIED    BY    NeW    RE- 
QUIREMENTS   AND    GENERALLY    BY     INFERIOR    SkILL    AND    MUCH    SMALLER 

Resources.     The   Eastern   Development   of   it   called    Byzantine 
MUCH  more  Splendid  and  more  Intelugent  than  that  of  the  West. 

I 

The  word  Romanesque  means  nearly  Roman  or  quasi- 
Roman.  It  should  be  used  for  the  arts  which  were  prac- 
tised during  the  years  of  the  slow  disintegration  of  the 
Roman  Empire,  while  new  needs  were  coming  into  exist- 
ence, new  nationalities  forming,  and  new  conditions  of  all 
sorts  taking  shape.  Logically,  the  architecture  of  the  fifth 
and  sixth  centuries,  both  East  and  West,  should  be  called 
Romanesque,  but  there  can  be  no  objection  to  the  common 
term  Byzantine  used  for  the  Eastern  architecture  and  art 
which  took  its  origin  in  Constantinople,  and  which  reached 
its  highest  development  during  those  two  centuries.  The 
word  Romanesque,  then,  is  more  general,  and  applies  to  the 
art  of  the  whole  late-Roman  world,  from  the  Atlantic 
Ocean  to  the  Arabian  desert.  Byzantine  art  is  a  branch  of 
the  Romanesque  art,  with  very  strongly  marked  character- 
istics of  its  own. 

112 


Sec.  I]  BUILDING  UNDER  NEW  CONDITIONS  1 1 3 

It  has  been  shown  in  the  previous  chapter  that  even 
during  the  highest  prosperity  and  unity  of  the  Empire, 
Roman  art  contained  within  itself  many  local  peculiarities. 
The  Nimes  Nymphaeum  (Fig.  31)  is  an  instance  of  build- 
ings not  of  characteristic  Roman  imperial  type,  being  of 
squared  and  dressed  stone,  roofed  with  vaults  of  dressed 
stone;  and  having  peculiarities  of  design  resulting,  it  is 
evident,  partly  from  the  material  used,  but  more  from 
certain  influences  not  now  to  be  traced.  Such  influences, 
contrary  to  the  central  imperial  regime,  were  more  free  to 
act  in  Syria  than  in  Southern  Gaul,  but  there  is  a  non- 
Roman  element,  a  touch  of  mediccvalism,  in  each.  These 
are  instances  of  a  kind  of  work  very  common  during  the 
Empire,  though  more  often  used  in  parts  of  large  buildings 
than  in  the  complete  construction  of  small  ones.  As  for 
details,  the  buildings  named  in  the  last  chapter,  such  as  the 
gateway  of  Hadrian  at  Athens  and  the  others  named  in 
connection  with  it,  give  evidence  enough  of  a  certain 
willingness  among  the  imperial  architects  to  disregard  the 
old  principle  of  combining  a  make-believe  post-and-lintel 
structure  with  real  vaulted  building.  In  each  of  the  above- 
named  decorative  structures  the  arch  itself  with  its  real 
imposts  is  made  the  important  feature ;  in  some  of  them 
there  is  no  "  order  "  of  column  and  entablature  at  all,  in 
others  the  columns  or  pilasters  are  used  in  a  very  logical 
way  as  flanking  piers,  exactly  as  the  Greek  builder  used 
his  antae,  at  once  ornamenting  and  making  more  solid  the 
end  or  an  angle  of  a  wall.  In  other  cases  there  are  decora- 
tions of  the  impost ;  that  is,  they  are  made  to  form  part  of 
the  solid  mass  upon  which  one  side  of  the  arch  rests.     They 


Fig.  55.     Kalb  Louzeh,  Syria:  Church  built  in  the  sixth  century. 


Sec.  I]  BUILDING  UNDER  NEW  CONDITIONS  II5 

are  becoming  parts  of  the  real  structure.  It  seems  to  be  a 
natural  instinct  of  man  to  make  his  ornament  and  his  build- 
ing agree.  If  he  has  an  arch,  the  primitive  builder  likes  to 
ornament,  in  an  especial  way,  that  part  of  the  wall  which 
immediately  supports  it :  if  he  has  a  pilaster,  either  torn 
from  an  ancient  structure  or  copied  or  adapted  from  such  a 
structure,  he  likes  to  put  that  pilaster  in  just  such  a  promi- 
nent place  as  the  impost  of  an  important  arch  is  sure  to  be. 
The  extremely  sophisticated  work  of  the  Roman  imperial 
architects,  that  system  by  which  the  building  was  done 
by  itself  and  done  thoroughly,  and  afterwards  the  decoration 
was  done  by  itself  and  done  deliberately,  ceased  with  the 
irresistible  supremacy  of  the  imperial  officials.  As  soon  as 
the  people  of  the  towns  were  left  to  themselves,  these 
people  of  mixed  races  —  Gallo-Romans,  Graeco- Italians, 
Syrian  Christians,  and  the  rest  —  began  to  build  in  a  more 
instinctive  and  natural  way.  Where  they  had  good  stone, 
easy  to  cut,  they  built  of  cut  stone,  building  with  an  arch 
the  top  of  every  large  opening  for  door  or  window  and 
spanning  with  an  arch  the  space  between  each  pair  of 
pillars  in  a  basilica ;  and  this  arch  they  made  of  dressed  vous- 
soirs,  exactly  as  the  Etruscans  had  done  twelve  hundred 
years  before  (see  Fig.  55).  Such  an  arch  they  would  adorn 
with  sculpture  and  mouldings  cut  in  the  stone,  or  with 
scroll-work  around  its  impost ;  or,  secondarily,  by  the  orna- 
mentation given  to  the  impost  itself,  perhaps  by  setting- 
back  the  wall  so  as  to  put  a  whole  column  in,  as  at  the 
convent  of  S.  Simeon  Stylites,  Kalat  Siman;  or,  at  the 
gateway  of  Deir  Siman,  shown  in  Fig.  56,  or  decorating  the 
edge  of  the  wall,  thus  turning  it  into  an  ornamental  pier. 


ii6 


EUROPE  350  TO   750  A.D. 


[Chap.  Ill 


When  two  arches  came  together  upon  a  single  pillar,  it 
would  be  a  square  pier,  as  in  the  church  of  Kalb  Louzeh, 
(above,  Fig.  55),  or  a  round  column,  or  a  pier  cruciform  in 
plan  or  semi-cruciform,  T-shape,  as  at  the  church  of 
Roueiha,    also    in    Central   Syria.     Where    no    arch    was 


Fig.  56.     Deir  Siman,  Syria :  Triumphal  arch  built  in  the  sixth  century. 

needed,  the  openings  being  narrow  and  the  materials 
excellent,  columns  and  lintels  were  used  as  in  Greek  work 
of  the  time  of  Pericles  or  in  Roman  temples  of  the  time  of 
Hadrian,  but  these  columns  did  not  pretend  to  be  of  any- 
admitted  classical  order  :  they  were  sculptured  by  the  na- 
tive workmen  to  suit  their  own  ideas  (see  Fig.  57).  When 
it  was  thought  desirable  to  decorate  a  large  surface  of  wall 
which  was  to  have  few  and  small  windows,  the  old  motive 
of  columns  or  half-columns  set  up  against  it  and  carrying 


Sec.  I] 


BUILDING  UNDER  NEW  CONDITIONS 


117 


moulded  string-courses  occurred  to  them ;  this,  indeed,  is  a 
favourite  scheme  for  rich  decoration  wherever  cut  stone  is 
being  used,  —  but  it  was  used  in  the  fifth  century  in  a  very 
non-classical  way,  as  in  the  apse  of  Kalb  Louzeh  and  that 
of  Kalat  Siman  (see  Fig.  58).  All  these  examples  have 
been  taken  from  the  buildings  in  Central  Syria  discovered 
by  the  Comte  de  Vogue's  expedition  and  drawn  by  M. 
Duthoit,  because  these  buildings  have  never  been  renovated  ; 
because  they  have  been  in  ruins  for  fifteen  hundred  years. 


Fig.  57.    Serjilla,  Syria :  Capitals  of  the  fifth  or  sixth  century. 

and  we  can  be  sure  of  the  actual  date  of  structure  and 
details.  Chief  of  these  buildings  is  the  astonishing  church 
of  the  convent  of  S.  Simeon  Stylites  at  Kalat  Siman  in 
Syria,  given  very  fully  by  M.  de  Vogue.  The  building  is 
in  ruins,  and  has  lost  all  its  roofs,  but  it  still  shows  as  a 
complete  piece  of  Romanesque  building  and  decoration. 
The  classical  entablature    has    been  completely  ignored ; 


ii8 


EUROPE  350  TO  750  A.D. 


[Chap.  Ill 


the  archivolts  of  the  smaller  arch  openings  are  moulded 
continuously  with  vertical  bands  which  either  stop  against 
the  sill  or  are  returned  horizontally ;  the  larger  openings 
have  arches  very  richly  moulded  and  sculptured,  and  these 


Fig.  58.     Kalat  Siman,  Syria :  Conventual  church  of  S.  Simeon  Stylites.     Part  of  apse 

built  in  the  fifth  century. 

arches  spring  from  imposts  which  are  decorated  with 
pilasters  and  free  columns.  The  church,  moreover,  is  of 
great  size;  it  consists  of  an  octagon  of  100  feet  span,  out 
of  which  open  four  arms,  each  complete  with  nave  and 
aisles,  which  have  stone  columns  dividing  them  and  large 
and  decorative  arches  in  all  the  eight  sides  of  the  great 


Sec.  IIJ  EARLY  CHRISTIAN  CHURCHES  II9 

octagon.  The  total  length  is  340  feet,  and  the  total  width, 
or  rather  the  length  of  the  transept  from  out  to  out,  is  303 
feet.  We  have  then  in  this  church  the  dimensions  and 
stately  plan  of  a  great  cathedral,  and  yet  there  can  be  no 
doubt  that  it  was  built  in  the  fifth  and  sixth  centuries. 
This  is  the  Romanesque  of  the  far  East ;  a  splendid  style 
destined  to  end  in  nothing. 

Consider  now  the  palace  of  Diocletian  and  the  curious 
colonnade  around  the  great  court  (Fig.  49).  At  the  end 
of  the  court  is  seen  an  entablature  which  bends  itself  into 
an  archivolt  over  one  intercolumniation.  Along  the  sides 
the  archivolts  come  directly  on  the  capitals,  and  there  is 
no  pretence  of  an  entablature.  Here  are  two  attempts 
at  something  new  in  building :  the  first  attempt,  that  of 
the  broken  entablature,  though  made  also  in  many  build- 
ings of  the  Empire,  as  for  instance  in  Baalbek  in  very 
magnificent  fashion,  was  to  fail  and  disappear,  reappearing 
as  a  modified  form  a  thousand  years  later ;  while  the  other, 
the  resting  of  the  archivolt  directly  on  the  capital,  was 
destined  to  prevail  and  to  be  a  main  feature  of  Western 
architecture  for  twelve  hundred  years. 

II 

With  these  already  existing  tendencies  toward  the  new 
and  untried  in  decorative  building  was  joined  the  demand 
for  buildings  to  supply  a  new  requirement,  as  indeed  the 
Syrian  churches  above  named  sufficiently  show.  The  Chris- 
tians, when,  in  Constantine's  time,  they  were  first  allowed 
to  have  places  of  public  worship  at  will,  needed  what  the 


120  EUROPE  350  TO   750  A.D.  [Chap.  Ill 

Roman  world  had  never  needed,  —  halls  for  congregations 
engaged  in  public  worship.  The  Roman  like  the  Grecian 
worship  had  required  no  interiors  for  audiences,  in  any  of 
its  forms ;  the  Roman  temples  would  have  been  of  no  use 
at  all  to  the  Christian  bishops.^  But  the  Roman  basilicas, 
especially  the  smaller  ones,  were  almost  exactly  what  the 
early  church  required :  they  were  roofed  buildings,  rec- 
tangular in  form,  not  very  unlike  modern  churches,  of 
which,  indeed,  they  are  the  prototypes.  These  could  not 
always  be  spared  from  their  civic  use ;  but  they  were  easy 
to  copy.  Another  type  of  structure  was  more  nearly 
original  with  the  Christians,  the  round  or  many-sided, 
one-roomed  structure  needed  to  enclose  the  large  bap- 
tismal font  of  the  time,  in  which  baptism  by  immersion 
was  practised.  The  fourth  century  saw  many  of  these 
baptisteries  and  many  Christian  basilicas  built.  There 
was  not  much  call  for  new  civic  buildings  at  this  epoch, 
for  the  prosperous  reigns  of  the  great  emperors  of  the 
previous  century  had  left  the  Empire  well  supplied  with 
civic  basilicas  and  baths,  pretoria  and  porticoes,  fortified 
and  triumphal  gateways,  monuments,  palaces,  and  temples. 
The  supply  was  even  in  excess  of  the  demand,  for  the 
population  of  the  Empire  was  decreasing,  except  where 
tribes  of  emigrating  Germans  or  Goths  had  been  wel- 
comed as  inhabitants  of  the  depopulated  provinces,  and 
these  half-Romanized  strangers  did  not  need  at  once  all 
that  had  been  provided  by  lavish  governors  in  the  past. 

^  For  the  real  or  apparent  exceptions  see  Chapter  II.,  Roman  Architect- 
ure, especially  the  Pantheon  and  temple  of  Venus  and  Rome ;  see  also  the 
mention  of  the  building  at  Eleusis,  Chapter  I. 


Sec.  IIJ  EARLY   CHRISTIAN   CHURCHES  121 

There  were  old  buildings  needing  repair,  or  half-ruined, 
from  which  it  was  easy  to  take  —  often  with  the  full  per- 
mission of  the  imperial  legates  —  shafts  of  marble  or 
granite  and  delicately  carved  Ionic  or  Corinthian  capitals 
and  bases.  Constantine  "  the  Great "  himself  was  honoured 
by  a  triumphal  arch,  still  standing  near  the  Colosseum,  for 
which  the  sculptures  of  an  arch  of  Trajan  were  torn  from 
their  proper  setting,  since  no  sculptors  were  to  be  found 
in  the  degenerate  Mediterranean  world  capable  of  pro- 
ducing such  work. 

The  earliest  Christian  basilicas  are  those  of  the  reign 
of  Constantine,  and  we  know  something  of  the  original 
<pharacter  of  several  of  these.  The  largest  ones,  S.  John 
Lateran  and  the  great  Metropolitan  Church  of  S.  Peter 
on  the  Vatican  Hill,  were  finished  before  335  ;  S.  Lorenzo 
outside  the  walls  and  S.  Maria  in  Trastevere  are  of  the 
same  time,  and  S.  Maria  Maggiore  was  finished  before 
370.  S.  Paul's  outside  the  walls  was  built  before  the 
end  of  the  century.  All  these  are  in  and  near  Rome ; 
all  but  two  were  begun,  if  not  completed,  under  Constan- 
tine. Many  alterations  have  been  made  to  these  basilicas, 
and  yet  it  is  not  hard  to  trace,  almost  without  uncertainty, 
the  original  plans  and  the  original  construction  of  all  but 
S.  Peter's.  Of  this  last,  trustworthy  drawings  have  been 
preserved.  These  basilicas  are  all  of  the  earliest  type, 
and  their  plans  should  he  studied  together  in  Gutensohn 
and  Knapp's  (Bunsen's)  Die  Basilike7t  des  christliche7i 
Roms.  The  plan  of  S.  John  Lateran,  as  it  was  before  its 
renovation  in  the  sixteenth  century,  is  given  in  Fig.  59. 
There  was  often  at  the  end  farthest  from  the  sanctuary  a 


122 


EUROPE,  350  TO   750  A.D. 


[Chap.  Ill 


large  square  forecourt  or  atrium,  surrounded  by  a  cloister, 
taking  the  place  of  the  narthex,  or  in  addition  to  the 
narthex.  This  feature  took  up  so  much  room  that  it 
tended  to  disappear,  but  it  has  been  preserved  in  S. 
Clemente  at  Rome  and  S.  Ambrogio  at  Milan.  Most 
of  the  basilicas  had  only  one  aisle  on  each  side  of  the 
nave.     In  some  the  transept  was  less  strongly  marked. 


Fig.  59.     Rome,  Italy :  Basilica  of  S.  John  Lateran.     Plan  of  the  original  structure  built 
in  the  fifth  century  a.d.     Width  within  the  outer  walls  about  180  feet. 

On  the  whole,  the  common  disposition  may  be  stated  as 
follows:  seats  for  the  bishop  and  other  church  officers  in 
the  semicircular  apse ;  place  for  the  clergy  and  others 
conducting  divine  service  in  the  transept;  place  for  the 
faithful  in  the  nave  and  aisles,  with  some  tendency  to 
separate  the  sexes,  either  in  different  aisles,  or  by  means 
of  an  upper  gallery  when  one  was  introduced;  no  one 
not  baptized  admitted  within  the  church ;  other  persons 
left  in  the  atrium  or  the  narthex.     The   principal   altar 


Fig.  6o.     Rome,  Italy:  Basilica  of  S.  Clemente;   as  on  the  old  plan.     Rebuilt  in  the 

eleventh  century  a.d. 


124  EUROPE.   350  TO   750  A.D.  [Chap.  Ill 

was  enclosed  by  a  railing  or  low  wall,  and  the  space  within 
this  tended  to  grow  larger  and  to  become  an  extensive 
choir  or  reserved  place  for  the  clergy  and  others  who 
conducted  the  service.  The  interior  of  S.  Clemente  at 
Rome  (Fig.  60)  is  a  good  instance  of  this  early  form  of 
Christian  basilica. 

There  was  no  exterior  architectural  effect;  none  was 
sought  for.  Within,  marble  columns  and  capitals  were  to 
be  seen  often  very  oddly  mated,  black  polished  marble 
shafts  from  one  ancient  structure  alternating  with  fluted 
shafts  of  white  marble  taken  from  another;  capitals  of 
Grecian  Doric  contrasting  with  those  of  Roman  Corin- 
thian, as  in  S.  Pietro  in  Vincoli,  Ionic  and  Corinthian  as 
in  S.  John  Lateran ;  capitals  too  small  to  fit  their  shafts ; 
shafts  of  unequal  lengths,  and  therefore  raised  on  pedestals 
of  differing  heights  (see  Figs.  60  and  64).  These  shafts 
and  capitals  taken  from  ancient  buildings  were  almost 
the  only  architectural  adornment  of  the  interiors.  The 
wall  which  they  carried  was  sustained  sometimes  by  round 
arches,  sometimes  by  lintels ;  this  wall  was  pierced  with 
plain  windows  in  the  clear-story  above  the  aisle-roofs,  and 
was  as  bare  as  possible  —  left  for  the  painter  or  mosaicist. 
The  roofs  were  of  timber ;  the  trusses  sometimes  left  visi- 
ble and  painted  in  bright  colours,  sometimes  concealed 
by  a  flat  ceiling.  The  interiors  must  have  been  very  plain 
and  bare,  except  where  the  walls  had  been  painted  richly, 
or  in  later  times  covered  with  mosaic,  and  they  were  full 
of  daylight.  For  the  general  effect  of  one  of  these  interi- 
ors see  Fig.  60. 

Contemporary  with    these    basilicas  were  the  round  or 


126 


EUROPE,  350  TO   750  A.D. 


[Chap.  Ill 


polygonal  churches,  some  of  which  were  and  remained 
baptisteries,  while  others,  like  S.  Costanza  at  Rome,  took 
or  kept  only  the  baptistery  form  (see  Fig.  61).  This 
very  early  church,  built  in  the  reign  of  Constantine  and 
not  altered  in  its  main  structure,  has  the  nave  roofed  by  a 
cupola  of  masonry  and  the  aisle  by  an  annular  vault,  and 
has  no  windows  except  those  of  the  clear-story  (see  Fig. 
62).     The  largest  of  all  these  round  churches  is  probably 

S.  Stefano  Rotondo  at  Rome,  built 
in  the  fifth  century ;  but  this  is  not 
a  typical  example.  The  church 
near  Nocera,  in  Campania,  called 
S.  Maria  Maggiore,  or  S.  Maria 
della  Rotonda,  is  an  excellent  ex- 
ample (see  Fig.  63).  It  is  to  be 
observed  that  a  section  through 
the  centre  of  one  of  these  round 
churches  corresponds  closely  to  a 
section  taken  across  a  basilica 
(see  Fig.  63).  The  circular  part 
rises  high  above  the  aisles,  and  is 
the  nave.  Whether  this  part  is  vaulted  or  roofed  with 
wood,  it  is  to  be  considered  not  a  tower,  even  when  its 
walls  rise  like  those  of  a  tower,  much  higher  than  the  walls 
of  the  nave  of  Nocera,  but  as  the  nave  of  a  church  with 
the  aisle  around  it,  —  the  nave  for  baptismal  service  and 
the  aisle  for  the  laymen ;  and  it  is  noticeable  that  as  these 
churches  began  to  be  used  for  other  than  baptismal  ser- 
vices, a  separate  choir  in  the  form  of  an  apse  was  often 
added  (see  Fig.  63).     Basilicas  and  round  churches  were 


Fig.  61.  Rome  :  Church  of 
S.  Constanza;  originally  a 
tomb-chapel.  About  315  a.d. 


■^^-"*-  «*f^«&^2jiS-ieiii2 


no  ft  too. 

I  I  I      I      I      I      I      I      I      I      t      [      > 


Fig.  63.    Nocera,  Italy :   Church  S.  Maria  della  Rotonda.     Built  probably  in  the  sixth 

century  a.d. 


128  EUROPE,  350  TO   750  A.D.  [Chap.  Ill 

alike  built  throughout  the  Empire  during  the  fourth  and 
fifth  centuries,  but  there  was  a  constant  tendency  to  re- 
place the  earlier  round  churches  by  oblong  and  rectan- 
gular, or  in  other  words  basilica-like,  structures  which 
were  naturally  more  easy  to  adapt  to  the  needs  of  a  large 
congregation.  When  the  rectangular  church  was  built, 
the  round  or  polygonal  one  was  kept  to  serve  as  a  bap- 
tistery, as  is  still  to  be  seen  at  the  Lateran  in  Rome  and 
at  Torcello  in  the  Venetian  lagoon. 


Ill 

It  must  be  understood  that  throughout  western  Europe 
buildings  were  erected  without  intelligent  skill,  with 
very  inadequate  means,  and  without  other  possible  deco- 
ration than  that  furnished  by  the  plunder  of  earlier 
structures.  The  eastern  provinces,  within  the  undisputed 
sway  of  the  Emperors  at  Constantinople,  could  build,  as 
we  have  seen,  in  a  somewhat  thorough  and  elegant  fashion, 
but  the  people  of  Gaul,  Spain,  and  Italy  were  not  so  favour- 
ably situated.  They  had  to  build  with  a  roughness,  a 
negligence,  and  a  lack  of  finish  difficult  for  us  now  to 
understand.  Figure  64  from  S.  Lorenzo  Fuori  le  Mura 
(outside  the  walls)  shows  how  in  a  basilica  in  Rome  itself 
the  ancient  materials  taken  from  perishing  imperial  build- 
ings were  utilized, —  larger  and  smaller  Corinthian  capitals, 
Ionic  capitals,  fluted  shafts,  spirally  reeded  shafts  and 
smooth  shafts,  all  used  in  the  same  small  church.  Where 
the  ancient  materials  were  not  available,  the  small  chapels 
and  baptisteries  were  often  what  we  should  now  call  huts, 


Fig.  64.     Rome,  Italy :   Church  of  S.  Lorenzo  without  the  walls.     In  part  of  the  fourth 

century  A.b. 


130  EUROPE,  350  TO   750  A.D.  [Chap.  Ill 

and  the  larger  churches,  all  of  which  except  two  or  three 
have  been  swept  away  to  make  room  for  better  buildings, 
were,  it  is  clear,  wretchedly  built.  Their  walls  of  poor 
material  were  very  thick,  because  otherwise  they  would 
not  have  stood,  the  windows  small,  the  roofs  roughly  put 
together  of  half-dressed  timber  from  the  forest.  No  style 
of  architecture  could  arise  under  these  conditions ;  indeed, 
western  Europe  was  too  disturbed  by  political  changes 
and  constant  destructive  wars  to  allow  of  a  consistent  style 
of  architecture,  and  the  years  from  about  450  to  1050  were 
to  pass  without  the  appearance  of  such  a  style  beyond  the 
frontiers  of  the  Byzantine  Empire.  The  great  decorative 
appliance  of  the  time,  mosaic,  used  freely  for  wall  pictures, 
is  one  which  would  naturally  take  shape  in  such  an  epoch. 
Mosaic  pictures  could  be  applied  to  any  wall  which  was 
somewhat  protected  from  the  weather.  Their  beauty  of 
colour  and  of  grave  and  simple  lines  was  one  with  the 
beauty  of  painted  pictures  in  manuscripts,  which  consti- 
tuted the  most  important  fine  art  of  the  time.  The  artists, 
who  could  neither  draw  nor  model  the  human  figure,  and 
who  had  lost  altogether  the  secrets  of  Greek  composition 
of  the  classical  epoch  as  preserved  under  the  great  Empire, 
were  still  capable  of  decorative  design  of  rude  character; 
and,  moreover,  Byzantine  manuscripts  and  drawings,  and 
tracings  from  Byzantine  mosaics,  must  have  been  brought 
rather  freely  into  the  West,  where  they  would  serve  to 
stimulate  design  in  the  direction  most  obvious  and  easy. 
Accordingly  if  we  could  see  a  large  basilica  as  it  stood  in 
the  seventh  or  eighth  century,  we  should  see  a  building 
with  plain  and  blank  outer  walls  except  where  a  fragment 


Sec.  Ill]  INFERIOR  MATERIALS  AND   SKILL  131 

of  sculpture  from  a  Roman  building  or  sarcophagus  might 
be  built  into  the  work,  as  now  in  the  walls  of  S.  Mark's 
Church  at  Venice.  The  roof  of  the  basilica  proper  would 
be  at  a  low  pitch  and  covered  with  plain  tiles,  the  windows 
of  the  clear-story  and  of  the  aisles  would  be  cut  through 
the  walls  without  mouldings  or  ornament  of  any  sort. 
The  atrium  or  great  court  would  be  surrounded  by  a  very 
plain  covered  way,  —  a  portico  or  peristyle,  —  and  the  wall 
enclosing  this  on  the  outside  would  be  absolutely  plain, 
without  relief  or  ornament.  A  mosaic  picture  here  and 
there,  with  a  wooden  pent-house  roof  to  protect  it,  would 
have  rather  the  appearance  of  an  object  of  worship  than  a 
piece  of  decoration.  In  the  interior,  the  columns  separat- 
ing the  nave  from  the  aisles  would  be  handsome,  and  even 
rich  in  themselves,  but  without  seeming  a  part  of  an  organ- 
ized and  carefully  planned  structure.  The  wall  resting 
upon  these,  whether  supported  by  arches  or  by  lintels, 
would  be  without  anything  to  give  shadow  or  to  divide 
it  up  in  an  architectural  way ;  there  would  be  no  pilasters, 
no  arcades,  no  mouldings  around  the  windows,  no  sill- 
courses  nor  friezes  of  sculpture.  The  roof  of  the  nave 
would  probably  be  of  plain  squared  timbers  with  nothing 
to  hide  them  and  without  carving  or  moulding,  but  they 
probably  would  be  painted  in  patterns  of  bright  colour. 
Large  parts  of  the  plain  wall  surface  would,  however,  be 
'covered  with  mosaic  of  small  cubes,  mainly  of  glass; 
roughly  worked  and  copied  from  cartoons  very  childish 
and  unskilled  in  drawing,  but  not  without  decorative  effect. 
Moreover,  the  reading-desk,  the  pulpit,  the  wall  enclosing 
the  choir,  the  altar,  and  especially  the   canopy  over  the 


132  EUROPE,  350  TO  750  A.D,  [Chap.  Ill 

altar,  called  ciborium,  or  in  later  times  baldacchino,  would 
be  more  or  less  architectural  in  character,  and  the  pave- 
ment of  the  church  would  probably  be  rich  with  inlaid 
marbles  taken  from  some  building  of  imperial  times,  and 
badly  relaid. 

These  basilicas,  however,  were  found  mainly  in  Italy,  so 
far  as  we  know.  The  larger  churches  of  the  north  were 
made  more  decidedly  cruciform  in  plan,  at  least  as  early  as 
the  close  of  the  sixth  century.  It  appears  from  the  de- 
scriptions of  the  time  that  their  interiors  were  sometimes 
decorated  with  columns  and  wall-facings  of  marble;  but 
the  whole  structure  was  undoubtedly  often  of  wood,  and 
in  the  regions  of  great  forests  they  continued  to  be  built 
and  rebuilt  in  that  material,  even  after  the  eleventh  cen- 
tury. There  is  a  tradition  that  even  Chartres  Cathedral 
was  of  wood  until  about  1050.  Meanwhile,  each  bishop 
and  abbot  strove  to  have  his  church  rebuilt  in  stone,  and 
even  to  have  the  roofs  of  the  same  material.  Among  the 
churches  in  any  great  town  one  would  find  many  attempts 
at  vaulting  the  aisles,  and  some  at  vaulting  the  wider  nave. 
Fear  of  fire,  and  perhaps  also  of  robbers  who  might  break 
through  the  tiles  of  the  low  aisle-roofs,  would  account  for 
the  constant  effort  to  secure  a  roof  of  masonry.  Another 
reason  was  the  less  dignified  and  less  permanent  look  of  the 
rough  timbers,  in  the  many  cases  where  no  good  carvers 
and  painters  could  be  obtained.  The  skill  of  the  builders 
was,  however,  insufficient,  and  the  material  resources  which 
they  controlled  were  inadequate.  One  contrivance  often 
resorted  to  was  to  build  stout  arches  across  the  nave  be- 
tween opposite  pillars,  and  to  build  upon  each  arch  a  wall 


Sec.  Ill] 


INFERIOR   MATERIALS   AND   SKILL 


133 


rising  in  a  gable :  the  roof  timbers  then  rested  upon  these 
walls  instead  of  trusses  of  carpenter  work  (see  Fig.  1 38  A 
in  which  is  shown  a  building  of  a  later  epoch  roofed  in  this 
manner).  This  same  device  was  used  in  Syria,  but  with 
walls  less  widely  separated,  and  carrying  flat  stone  slabs, 
and  similar  con- 
struction was  to 
be  employed  a 
few  years  later 
in  the  great 
mosques  of  Cai- 
ro, Damascus, 
and  Cordova; 
and  Spanish 
churches  of  the 
fourteenth  cen- 
tury, such  as 
S.  Agata  of  Bar- 
celona, preserve 
the  type. 

Vaults,  when 

they  built  vaults,      Fig.  65.     Biella,  Italy:    Chapel  probably  of  the  eighth  cen- 

were  apt  to  fall  '""'^  ^•^• 

down,  or  had  to  be  supported  by  props  or  held  together 
by  iron  ties.  A  few  cases  are  known  to  us  in  which  greater 
knowledge  on  the  part  of  the  travelled  and  instructed 
builders,  or  an  Eastern  model  to  copy,  or  finally  a  small 
scale  and  a  massive  construction,  have  saved  the  stone  roof. 
There  are  several  in  Italy.  Thus  at  Biella  in  Piedmont, 
northeast  of  Turin,  is  the  little  structure  shown  in  Fig.  65, 


ImU I I I l__l 


134  EUROPE,  350  TO  750  A.D.  [Chap.  Ill 

and  which  is  vaulted  in  four  semi-domes  and  one  square 
cupola  with  rounded  corners ;  but  this  building  is  only 
thirty-five  feet  in  total  diameter.  Scarcely  larger  is  the 
baptistery  of  Galliano  near  Como  in  Lombardy.  Nothing 
seems  to  be  known  of  the  date  of  this  little  building,  but 
it  is  of  the  same  design  as  that  of  Biella,  and  is  even  less 
carefully  built.  The  larger  churches  have  been  replaced  by 
later  buildings,  but  some  of  the  very  small  ones  still  exist 
unchanged  in  other  lands  than  Italy.  One  of  these  is  the 
little  chapel  on  one  of  the  islands  off  Cannes  on  the  French 
Riviera,  Isle  Saint  Honorat  de  Lerins.  This  building  is 
probably  of  the  seventh  century ;  it  consists  of  a  nave 
about  seventeen  feet  long  and  wide,  which  is  roofed  with  a 
simple  wagon  vault  strengthened  in  the  middle  by  a  heavy 
arch  concentric  with  the  vault,  and  beyond  this  a  little 
sanctuary  roofed  by  a  square  dome  and  three  semi-domes. 
Several  other  minute  chapels  of  this  sort  exist,  —  one  at 
Montmajour  near  Aries  (see  Fig.  66),  and  one  at  Querque- 
ville  near  Cherbourg,  both  in  France ;  but  in  the  north  no 
vaulted  roof  of  any  considerable  magnitude  has  come  down 
to  us  from  any  epoch  previous  to  the  eleventh  century.  It 
is  evident  that  hundreds  of  buildings  with  Roman  vaulting 
still  intact  existed  in  all  parts  of  Europe  in  the  seventh 
and  eighth  centuries.  Single  chambers  of  Roman  thermae 
and  Pretoria  and  even  of  dwellings,  such  vaulted  rooms  as 
may  now  be  seen  in  Paris  behind  the  Hotel  de  Cluny, 
must  have  been  in  use,  in  great  numbers ;  their  vaulting 
protected  from  the  weather  by  wooden  roofs  and  thatch 
and  thin  walling  built  up  where  needed  to  enclose  them 
more  perfectly.     Such  a  room  is  still  to  be  seen  at  Cividale 


'  '  '''"i>m-£/ 


"mm"" 


',rffi^; 


W/ii»"""'*"''"' 


Fig.  66.     Montmajour,  near  Aries,  France  :  Chapel  of  the  Holy  Cross.     Eleventh 
century.     Total  length  over  all,  51  feet. 


136  EUROPE,  350  TO   750  A.D.  [Chap.  Ill 

near  Udine  in  the  extreme  eastern  part  of  Venetia,  as 
shown  in  Fig.  67.  It  is  given  here  as  an  instance  of  what 
must  have  been  once  a  very  large  class  of  buildings,  the 
churches  and  chapels  put  into  shape  within  the  remains  of 
imperial  structures. 

IV 

There  exist,  in  many  parts  of  the  old  Roman  Empire, 
buildings  of  a  character  very  different  from  those  described 
as  Romanesque  in  the  last  chapter,  but  known  to  be  of  the 
same  epoch  with  them.  If  the  ancient  Empire  is  taken  as 
divided  in  two  by  the  Adriatic  Sea,  the  eastern  half  Graeco- 
Oriental  in  character,  the  western  half  Latin,  then  by  far 
the  greater  number  of  these  buildings  which  we  have  to 
describe  are  in  the  eastern  division.  Travellers  in  Italy 
recosrnize  the  difference  between  four  or  five  ancient 
churches  in  Ravenna,  on  the  eastern  coast  of  Italy,  and 
other  Italian  buildings  of  the  early  Middle  Ages. 
S.  Mark's  church  in  Venice  is  recognized  as  having  some 
points  of  resemblance  to  those  Ravenna  churches.  But 
beyond  the  Adriatic  Sea  there  are,  in  Constantinople,  the 
great  church  of  Hagia  Sophia  and  that  of  SS.  Sergios  and 
Bacchos,  and  at  Salonika  the  church  of  S.  George,  which 
are  known  to  have  been  completed  in  their  present  state 
before  the  end  of  the  seventh  century  a.d.  ;  also  in  Constan- 
tinople the  church  of  S.  Irene  and  the  church  of  the  The- 
otokos ;  at  Salonika,  the  church  of  Hagia  Sophia,  that  of 
S.  Demetrios,  and  that  of  S.  Elias;  at  Studenica  in  Servia, 
a  church ;  at  Trebizond,  the  church  of  Hagia  Sophia ; 
at  Athens,  the  old  cathedral ;  and  throughout  these  lands 


J- 


Fig.  67.     Cividale,  Venetia,  Italy :  Hall  perhaps  Roman  of  the  fourth  or  fifth  century, 

used  as  a  church. 


138  EUROPE,  350  TO   750  A.D.  [Chap.  Ill 

of  the  eastern  Mediterranean  a  host  of  minor  churches  of 
later  or  probably  later  date  —  all  of  which  churches  are 
akin  in  many  important  respects  to  the  churches  in  Ra- 
venna above-named.  All  these  buildings  are  called  Byzan- 
tine, and  the  style  which  is  common  to  them  all  is  called 
the  Byzantine  style.  It  is,  as  we  have  said  in  the  last 
chapter,  a  form  of  the  Romanesque,  but  it  deserves  especial 
consideration  because  of  its  strongly  marked  peculiarities, 
and  because  of  the  beauty  of  many  of  the  buildings  which 
belong  to  it.  On  the  other  hand,  as  it  has  had  but  little 
effect  on  later  European  architecture,  its  chief  outcome 
being  in  the  mosques  of  Cairo  and  similar  Mohammedan 
buildings  which  lie  outside  of  our  subject,  it  must  be  treated 
briefly. 

The  great  prototype  of  this  style  is  H.  Sophia  in  Con- 
stantinople, built  by  the  Emperor  Justinian  and  partly  re- 
built by  him  after  a  fire,  and  finished  as  now  in  the  year 
538  A.D.  How  far  this  church  was  a  new  inspiration  of 
the  builders,  reasoned  out  to  meet  the  requirements  of  the 
Emperor  that  a  church  should  be  built  exceeding  all  build- 
ings on  earth  in  extent  and  beauty,  and  how  far  it  was 
based  upon  previous  monuments,  we  do  not  certainly  know. 
The  buildings  which  had  been  built  by  Greek  builders  in 
the  great  cities  of  the  eastern  half  of  the  Empire  during 
the  six  centuries  previous  to  this  undertaking  have  per- 
ished. It  has  been  alleged  that  the  church  of  S.  George 
at  Salonika  existed  before  the  erection  of  the  present  H. 
Sophia,  and  this  is  probable,  but  the  building  has  no  bold- 
ness of  design,  and  is  a  small  cupola  supported  on  a  ring- 
wall  pierced  by  niches.     It  is  evident  that  very  great  credit 


Sec.  IV] 


BYZANTINE   BUILDING 


139 


must  be  given  to  Anthemios,  the  builder  of  H.  Sophia,  and 
his  assistant  Isidores,  for  their  boldness  and  skill.  It  is  clear 
that  they  took  a  longer  step  in  advance  than  it  is  generally 
in  the  power  of  man  to  do  in  matters  of  fine  art  or  build- 
ing. Figure  68  is  the  plan  of  Hagia  Sophia.  The  great 
dome  is  low  rather  than  lofty,  and  107  feet  in  diameter ;  it 
rests  upon  four  great  arches  which  enclose  a  square,  the 


o        »5        fo        yr       loo 

hiiiJ I I L_J 

YiG.  68.     Constantinople :  Church  of  Hagia  Sophia,  rebuilt  566. 

triangles  in  the  corners  of  the  square  being  filled  by  what 
are  called  pendentives.  To  the  eastward  and  westward  of 
this  great  square  are  half-domes  which  cover  each  a  semi- 
circular drum,  but  this  drum  is  pierced  in  each  case  by 
rounded  apses,  which  are  again  covered  by  half-cupolas 
penetrating  the  larger  ones.  The  great  dome  is  pierced 
just  above  its  base  by  a  number  of  small  arched  windows, 
and  similar  windows  pierce  the  semi-domes,  both  larger 
and  smaller ;  in  fact,  a  large  amount  of  the  light  which  fills 


I40  EUROPE,  350  TO   750  A.D.  [Chap.  Ill 

the  interior  is  taken  in  this  way  through  the  roof.  The 
columns  shown  on  the  ground  plan  have  none  of  the  work 
of  supporting  the  roof.  All  the  weight  of  the  dome  and 
the  semi-domes  and  of  the  great  arches  which  carry  the 
former  rests  upon  the  great  piers.  The  columns  carry 
arches,  which  in  their  turn  carry  a  second  row  of  columns 
and  arches.  Some  of  these  support  the  large  semicircular 
walls  pierced  with  windows,  which  fill  the  space  beneath 
the  great  arches  on  the  north  and  on  the  south,  and  others 
support  the  semicircles  which  flank  the  large  semi-domes. 
The  floors  of  galleries  are  carried  by  the  walls  which  these 
minor  arches  support.  Figure  69  is  a  longitudinal  section 
of  the  church,  which  will  give  a  slight  idea  of  its  construc- 
tion and  arrangement. 

The  smaller  churches  which  are  recognized  as  of  the  By- 
zantine type  have  many  points  of  resemblance  to  H.  Sophia. 
In  the  first  place,  vaulting  is  used  with  the  greatest  freedom 
and  in  great  variety  of  form.  The  Byzantines  are  tied  to 
no  such  conventional  rule  as  that  which  forbade  the  Romans 
to  let  barrel-vaults  of  different  spans  and  heights  intersect 
one  another.  The  Byzantine  builder  uses  barrel-vaults 
of  all  sizes  and  sections,  and  lets  them  intersect  as  they 
will.  He  uses  domes,  half-domes,  and  cupola-vaults  which 
are  built  on  neither  whole  circles  nor  half-circles  necessarily, 
but  of  such  horizontal  plan  as  the  distribution  of  the  church 
requires;  like  those  of  H.  Sophia  above,  which  break  into  the 
large  semi-domes.  He  supports  his  vaults,  whether  cupola- 
shape  or  square  in  plan,  either  upon  continuous  walls  or 
upon  pendentives  which,  in  their  turn,  are  supported  by  meet- 
ing arches,  or  finally  upon  small  points  of  support  like  the 


142  EUROPE,  350  TO   750  A.D.  [Chap.  Ill 

groined  vaults  of  the  Romans,  but  with  much  greater  free- 
dom of  arrangement.  This  freedom  of  his,  of  building  in 
any  way  most  convenient,  is  well  shown  in  the  immense 
covered  cisterns  which  Constantine  and  his  immediate  suc- 
cessors built  for  the  storage  of  aqueduct  water ;  halls  whose 
roofs  are  carried  on  vaults  supported  by  slender  columns 
twelve  to  fifteen  feet  apart,  in  long  rows.  For  these  vaults 
the  builders  used  cut  stone,  brick,  rough  stone  and  brick 
conjointly,  and  hollow  earthenware  vessels ;  they  built  them 
with  thin  beds  of  mortar  and,  equally  well,  with  quantities 
of  mortar  filling  all  interstices  and  making  of  the  whole 
vault  a  homogeneous  shell  in  the  true  Roman  fashion ;  they 
built  such  vaults  without  centres,  with  only  partial  or  guid- 
ing centres,  or  with  full  centres  in  the  Roman  way ;  they 
found  means  to  roof  every  part  of  a  complicated  build- 
ing with  its  own  distinct  cupola  or  barrel-vault  or  other 
masonry  covering,  —  all  these  working  together  to  pro- 
duce a  harmonious  effect  within. 

One  very  remarkable  result  of  their  method  of  building 
is  seen  in  their  homogeneous  roofs.  The  same  shell  of 
masonry  serves  as  a  ceiling  within  and  as  a  water-shedding 
roof  surface  without.  There  can  be  no  doubt  that  this 
result  was  often  reached  by  the  imperial  Roman  builders 
in  the  roofs  of  the  thermae  and  basilicas ;  but  the  Byzan- 
tine builders  reached  the  same  result  at  a  very  slight  ex- 
pense of  labour  and  material.  The  builders  of  no  other 
mediaeval,  and  of  no  modern  school,  have  been  capable  of 
homogeneous  roofs  except  in  a  few  cupolas;  and  now  and 
then  in  buildings  erected  at  lavish  cost,  or  with  nineteenth- 
century  building  appliances. 


Sec.  V]  BYZANTINE  DECORATION  1 43 


V 

The  interiors  resulting  from  this  vaulted  construction 
were  simple,  with  broad,  smooth,  unbroken  surfaces  of  wall 
and  rounded  ceiling.  There  were  few  breaks,  few  projec- 
tions ;  no  pillars  nor  horizontal  courses  projecting  from 
the  smooth  faces  of  the  finished  masonry  and  no  mould- 
ings at  the  angles.  Even  the  projecting  corners  of  the 
great  piers  rising  from  the  floor  to  the  spring  of  the  vaults 
and  the  angles  of  the  vaults  above,  were  rounded  off 
smoothly  instead  of  being  emphasized  by  means  of  mould- 
ings in  groups  or  by  angle-shafts  or  pilasters  with  capitals 
and  bases.  The  decoration  which  such  interiors  called  for 
was,  then,  the  mere  beautifying  of  the  smooth  surface. 
For  this  purpose  we  must  not  forget  that  there  were,  even 
when  H.  Sophia  was  building,  no  skilled  painters  such  as 
four  hundred  years  before  had  been  at  the  call  of  Hadrian. 
Justinian  had  the  Empire  from  Italy  to  the  Euphrates  at 
his  command,  but  he  could  not  get  men  who  knew  how  to 
paint  and  carve  the  human  figure  as  the  Greeks  and  their 
pupils  of  an  earlier  time  had  done.  It  is  a  strange  and  not 
perfectly  explained  process  of  decay,  this  of  the  artistic 
power  of  a  whole  world  of  men ;  but  it  is  actual  and  cer- 
tain, as  the  study  of  the  carved  sarcophagi  and  the  bas- 
reliefs  of  Christian  subject  of  the  fifth  and  sixth  centuries 
show  very  clearly.  Mosaic,  however,  with  its  splendid 
effects  of  colour  enhanced  by  the  semi-vitreous  lustre,  and 
its  rejection  of  refined  delineation,  was  at  the  Emperor's 
service.     His  designers  could  make  splendid  decorative  fig- 


144  EUROPE,  350  TO   750  A.D.  [Chap.  Ill 

ures  of  great  stateliness  of  pose  and  of  some  charm  of  out- 
line, and  the  patterns  of  background  and  border  were  very 
rich.  His  carvers  of  marble  were  capable  of  beautiful 
scroll-work,  and  this  could  be  cut  in  low  relief  in  thick 
slabs,  or  could  be  incised  in  such  slabs  and  the  incisions 
filled  in  either  with  marbles  of  other  colours  or  with  plastic 
composition.  The  capitals  of  the  columns  were  carved  in 
low  relief  with  exquisite  leaf-decoration.  In  short,  the  con- 
ditions of  what  we  call  barbaric  or  semi-civilized  art  were 
all  present :  a  power  over  ornamental  patterns  and  brilliant 
colours  which  our  modern  civilization  wholly  lacks,  con- 
siderable skill  in  making  conventionalized  drawings  of  the 
human  figure,  which  themselves  work  in  with  the  orna- 
mental patterns  and  the  colour  composition,  and  finally 
very  perfect  judgment  as  to  the  use  of  these  appliances  in 
ornamenting  large  surfaces.  With  all  this  very  un- Roman 
ornament  was  combined  the  favourite  Roman  device  of 
rich  material.  The  walls  of  H.  Sophia  are  sheathed  with 
splendid  marbles,  and  the  columns  are  of  porphyry,  verde 
antico,  cipollino,  and  other  such  jewel-like  materials,  just 
as  a  palace-hall  in  Rome  would  have  been  adorned  three 
centuries  earlier.  All  of  this  decoration  can  still  be  admired 
in  the  church,  except  the  figures  of  saints  and  angels  in 
the  mosaic  of  the  vaulting,  which  are  covered  lest  they 
should  offend  Moslem  eyes. 

Other  churches  were  adorned  by  the  same  means,  so  far 
as  they  were  available  in  each  case.  Marbles  and  porphy- 
ries must  have  been  easy  to  get  in  Constantinople  and  in 
other  great  cities  of  the  Empire.  Carving  in  marble  for 
capitals  and  slabs  and  inlaying  upon  smooth  surfaces  must 


Sec.  V]  BYZANTINE  DECORATION  1 45 

have  been  arts  in  constant  use.  Mosaic,  given  a  new  im- 
petus by  its  use  in  H.  Sophia,  must  have  been  common 
throughout  the  Eastern  Empire  by  the  end  of  the  sixth 
century.  Accordingly,  although  little  has  been  done  to 
gather  information  on  the  subject,  churches  adorned  in  this 
way  are  known  in  cities  and  towns  throughout  the  Levant. 
Exterior  architecture,  on  the  other  hand,  is  extremely 
slight  and  devoid  of  character.  It  may  almost  be  said  that 
no  exterior  architecture  was  ever  elaborated  by  the  Byzan- 
tine builders  of  early  date.  In  Ravenna,  as  in  the  East,  the 
churches  of  all  forms  have  the  plainest  brick  outsides,  with- 
out any  architectural  pretensions  at  all.  In  Ravenna,  the 
"  orthodox "  baptistery  called  S.  Giovanni  in  Fonte  is  an 
octagonal  tower  roofed  by  a  cupola  and  having  a  little  apse 
upon  every  alternate  side,  so  as  to  have  a  nearly  square 
floor;  the  tombal  chapel  of  the  Empress  Galla  Placidia, 
now  SS.  Nazario  e  Celso,  is  a  small  cruciform  building  with 
barrel-vaults  and  a  square  tower  at  the  crossing ;  S.  Vitale 
is  a  large  octagonal  church,  the  nave  adorned  by  rounded 
apsidioles  like  those  of  H.  Sophia  of  Constantinople  and 
having  a  well-planned  apse  within  the  circuit  of  the  aisles ; 
S.  Apollinare  in  Classe  outside  the  town  and  S.  Apollinare 
Nuovo  within  the  walls  are  wooden-roofed  basilicas  with 
round  campanili.  All  these  buildings  of  such  different 
shapes  and  sizes  are  of  the  fifth  and  sixth  centuries ;  they 
have  suffered  but  little  alteration ;  they  are  made  beautiful 
with  mosaics  of  unsurpassed  decorative  effect  and  are  not 
without  more  purely  architectural  merit,  in  their  interiors ; 
but  their  outsides  are  almost  absolutely  blank,  of  the  plain- 
est brick-work  with  openings  cut  squarely  through  it.     In 


146  EUROPE,  350  TO   750  A.D.  [Chap.  Ill 

like  manner  S.  George  at  Salonika,  SS.  Sergios  and  Bac- 
chos  at  Constantinople,  the  beautiful  basilica  of  Parenzo  in 
Istria,  and  the  cathedral  of  Torcello  in  the  Venetian  lagoon 
with  its  adjacent  church  of  S.  Fosca,  —  all  buildings  of  the 
years  between  500  and  750  a.d.,  and  little  changed  from 
their  primitive  form  and  appearance,  —  are  as  plain  with- 
out as  if  no  one  had  dreamed  of  architectural  enrichment 
with  regard  to  them,  except  that  at  some  time  mosaics 
have  been  spread  over  parts  of  the  outer  walls,  as  at 
Parenzo  and  at  Torcello.^ 

The  early  Byzantine -style  is  of  the  greatest  interest  to 
the  student,  and  one  may  easily  come  to  feel  a  special 
affection  for  it,  as  for  the.  most  deeply  satisfying  of  all 
styles  whose  buildings  are  still  standing  for  us  to  see.  It 
has  had  but  little  influence  upon  later  European  work, 
however.  Continued  with  but  little  change  within  the 
limits  of  the  Byzantine  Empire,  it  found  its  chief  and  most 
important  development  in  the  Mussulman  styles  of  Cairo, 
Damascus,  and  Moorish  Spain ;  which  are  outside  of  our 
subject. 

^  There  can  be  little  doubt  that  the  decoration  of  the  apse  of  S.  Fosca  at  Tor- 
cello  is  of  the  eleventh  century. 


CHAPTER   IV 

THE  ARCHITECTURE  OF  EUROPE  FROM  750  TO  1150  A.D. 

The  Developed  Romanesque  ;  it  reaches  Great  Splendour  in  West- 
ern Europe  and  the  Byzantine  Form  of  it  retains  its  Value. 

I 

At  Aix-la-Chapelle  or  Aachen  in  the  province  of  Rhen- 
ish Prussia  stands  the  building  which  Charles  the  Great 
built  as  a  palace-chapel ;  the  building  which  gave  the  town 
its  peculiar  French  name.  This  building  is  a  round  church 
very  much  like  those  built  in  Italy  three  hundred  years 
before,  and  there  is  little  doubt  that  we  have  it  nearly 
intact,  except  that  its  added  decoration  has  disappeared. 
It  has  been  enlarged,  a  very  impressive  late-Gothic  choir 
has  been  added  to  make  a  cathedral  out  of  it,  and  chapels 
of  still  later  date  flank  the  choir ;  but  the  original  round 
church  remains,  and  retains  most  fortunately  some  of  its 
bronze  fittings,  which  show  in  a  very  emphatic  way  how 
classical  the  church  must  have  been  in  detail.  Figure  70 
is  a  plan  of  the  original  round  church.  The  nave  is  vaulted 
by  a  simple  octagonal  cupola.  The  complicated  vaulting 
of  the  aisle  it  is  unnecessary  to  explain ;  it  has  no  close 
relation  with  the  vaulting  of  other  buildings  of  the  epoch, 
but  is  much  later  in  the  system  adopted.      The  church 

147 


148 


EUROPE,   750  TO    1 150  A.D. 


[Chap.  IV 


of  S.  Michael  in  Fulda,  northeast  of  Frankfurt-on-the-Main, 
built  before  820,  shows,  in  spite  of  later  modification,  its 
original  plan.  The  nave  is  a  cylindrical,  tower-like  struct- 
ure carried  on  eight  columns  with  round  arches  skilfully 
built  in  the  rounded  wall,  and  the  aisle  is  roofed  by  a  half- 
vault  ;  literally  the  half  of  an  annular  vault,  the  section  of 

which  anywhere  is  like  a  flying 
buttress.  The  church  of  S. 
Gereon  at  Cologne  has  been 
more  altered  than  the  church  at 
Aix-la-Chapelle,  and  is  thought 
by  some  archaeologists  to  have 
received  its  original  form  in  the 
fifth  century.  If  this  is  so,  this 
church  may  have  served  as  in 
part  the  prototype  for  the  royal 
chapel  at  Aix-la-Chapelle,  but  it 
is  as  we  see  it  now  a  Roman- 
esque rotunda-like  church  with  a 
long  choir  of  later  date.  The 
rotunda,  which  serves  as  the 
nave,  is  ten-sided  and  of  a  curious 
oval  form  with  chapels  like  little 
apses,  reminding  one  of  the  curved  projections  from  the 
nave  of  H.  Sophia  at  Constantinople  and  S.  Vitale  at 
Ravenna;  but  all  this  unique  rotunda  was  remade  in  the 
twelfth  century,  and  is  now  a  very  beautiful  late-Roman- 
esque building  with  Gothic  windows  of  a  still  later  date. 

It  would  seem  that  the  use  of  the  round  or  polygonal 
plan  for  churches  of   considerable   size  was   a   lingering 


1 1  1 1 1  1 1 


4 


Fig.  70.  Aachen  or  Aix-la-Chapelle, 
Prussia :  Chapel,  original  plan  as 
built  in  the  ninth  century. 


Sec.  I] 


NORTHERN   CHURCHES   BEFORE    1150  A.D. 


149 


relic  of  the  earliest  Christian  architectural  epoch.  The 
future  of  church  building  was  not  in  this  plan,  but  in  the 
long  parallelogram  made  up  of  nave  and  aisles,  with  choir 
in  the  form  of  an  apse  at  one  end,  and  generally  turned 
toward  the  east.  It  is  a  deduction  from  the  three-aisle 
basilica.  Take  such  a  basilica,  as  in  Figs.  59,  60,  64 ; 
enlarge  the  apse  to  a  length  nearly  equal 
to  that  of  the  nave,  and  give  the  transept 
greater  length,  leaving  the  ends  square,  — 
the  whole  cruciform  plan  of  the  Middle 
Ages  is  established.  Take  the  same  ba- 
silica plan,  and  round  the  two  arms  of  the 
transept  into  apses  as  large  or  about  as 
large  as  the  eastern  apse,  so  that  the 
whole  of  the  sanctuary  end  of  the  church 
is  converted  into  a  tri-apsal  group  (see 
Fig.  71).  If  now  the  square  into  which 
the  three  apses  open  be  carried  up  into  a 
tower  rising  above  the  other  roofs,  you 
have  the  Romanesque  plan  as  seen  in  S. 
Georges  de  Boscherville  near  Rouen  and 
in  the  church  of  S.  Martin  in  Cologne. 
If  the  same  tower  be  made  octagon,  you 
have  the  general  scheme  developed  in  the  cathedral  of 
Florence  (see  Fig.  166  B).  Of  these  two  principal  plans, 
the  former  was  destined  to  the  widest  popularity,  especially 
during  the  epoch  of  Gothic  architecture  beginning  about 
1 180;  but  the  latter,  that  is  to  say  the  plan  with  the  long 
nave  and  the  short  choir-group  of  apse  with  rounded 
transepts,  was  rather  the  favourite  as  long  as  the  Roman- 


luul U-I 1 1 1 

Fig.  71.  S.  Satur- 
nin  and  Quer- 
queville,  France : 
Chapels  of  the 
ninth  and  tenth 
centuries.  Plans. 


ISO 


EUROPE,    750  TO    1 150   A.D. 


[Chap.  IV 


Fig.  72.  Vignory,  France :  Church  built  in  the  tenth 
century.  Plan.  Total  length,  including  the  apsidal 
chapel,  about  170  feet. 


esque  or  round-arched  architecture  prevailed  in  its  un- 
changed form. 
■  In  this  and  in 
all  other  plans  the 
difficulty  of  vault- 
ing the  churches 
was  equally  great. 
The  custom  was 
rather  to  vault  small 

parts    at    and  near  the    sanctuary  and  to  leave  the  nave 

and  often  the  aisles  with  timber  roofs.     The  interior  of  the 

church  of  Vi- 
gnory {Haute- 

Marne),     near 

Chaumont,  fur- 
nishes us  with 

architectural 

details   typical 

of  the  building 

of  this  period, 

in    any    place 

and     time    of 

tolerable  peace 

and  prosperity. 

The       church 

has    been    re- 
stored, but  the 

work  was  con-  ^'''-  73  (^^^  f^^-  72). 

ducted  by  a  competent  and  conscientious  architect,  Mr. 

Boeswilwald.     Figure  72  gives  the  plan  of   this   church, 


Sec.  I]  NORTHERN  CHURCHES  BEFORE   1150  A.D.  151 

and  Fig.  73  shows  the  interior  arrangement.  The  east- 
ern end  of  the  church  is  vaulted  in  part ;  that  is  to  say, 
the  aisle  on  both  sides  and  around  the  semicircular, 
apse-like  end  of  the  choir  is  roofed  with  a  barrel-vault,  and 
the  apse  itself  with  a  semi-dome.  All  the  rest  is  roofed 
with  timber,  like  a  southern  basilica.  The  tier  of  coupled 
arches  and  short  columns  alternating  with  piers  indicates 
a  triforium  gallery ;  but  there  is  no  floor  of  such  a  gallery, 
and  the  roof  of  the  aisle  is  visible  from  below.  When 
vaulting  was  undertaken,  the  barrel-vault  was  often  used 
for  even  the  high  nave,  and  this  was  sometimes  counter- 
poised or  buttressed  by  the  upper  vaults  over  the  aisles. 
Thus  in  the  great  and  splendid  church  of  S.  Saturnin 
(S.  Sernin)  of  Toulouse  in  the  south  of  France,  and  in 
many  smaller  churches,  the  vaults  over  the  aisles  are  half- 
barrel-vaults,  as  if  a  barrel-vault  had  been  cut  in  halves, 
and  one  half  set  up  on  each  side  of  the  nave-vault  so  as  to 
take  up  its  thrust.  The  close  resemblance  of  this  system 
to  the  true  flying  buttress  system  will  be  noticed  in  Chap- 
ter V.  Figure  74  shows  the  cross-section  of  the  church 
of  Notre  Dame  du  Port  at  Clermont-Ferrand.  The  barrel- 
vault  was  often  modified  so  as  to  have  a  pointed  or  broken 
curve  in  section,  as  is  seen  in  the  church  of  S.  Eutrope  at 
Saintes,  on  the  west  coast  of  France,  near  La  Rochelle. 
This  pointed  section  made  the  vault  a  little  safer  than  a 
semicircular  section,  but  it  was  very  hard  to  keep  in  place, 
because  of  the  thrust  it  gave  all  along  the  whole  length  of 
the  clear-story  wall.  The  transverse  arches  which  are 
used  here  are  of  only  slight  use  in  bringing  this  thrust 
to   fixed    points ;    that  is,  to  the  piers  between  windows. 


152 


EUROPE,   750  TO    1 150  A.D. 


[Chap.  IV 


Saint-Genou,  a  little  village  between  Loches  and  Cha- 
teauroux,  has  a  church  of  the  same  epoch  which  has  vaulted 
aisles  and  a  closed  triforium  gallery  with  sculptured  capi- 


FiG.  74  (see  Fig.  76). 


tals  of  great  interest.  The  church  of  Germigny-les-Pres 
(Loiret)  was  such  a  basilica-like  church  of  the  ninth  cen- 
tury, and,  although  destroyed  by  restoring  architects,  has 
left  behind  it  an  accurate  record. 

The  same  epoch  has  left  for  us  some  very  curious  re- 


Sec.  I] 


NORTHERN   CHURCHES   BEFORE   1150  A.D. 


153 


mains  of  building  in  parti-coloured  materials,  such  as  the 
so-called  Roman  tower  at  Cologne,  the  abbey-church  of 
Lorsche  near  Darmstadt,  and  S.  Lubin  at  Suevres,  near 
Blois.  This  decoration  in  large  mosaic  of  wall-material 
did  not  lose  its 
charm  for  the  Ro- 
manesque builders, 
and  disappears  only 
with  the  establish- 
ment of  the  organ- 
ized Gothic  style. 
The  exterior  of  the 
curious  baptistery 
(Fig.  75)  at  Poitiers 
shows  another  at- 
tempt at  ornamen- 
tation without  ar- 
chitectural system, 
by  building  in  frag- 
ments of  detail, 
perhaps  taken  from 
other  buildings. 
It  reveals  a 
nearly  complete 
absence  of  any 
notion  of  exterior  designing;  and  curiously  enough  the 
interior  wall  of  the  north  transept  was  not  dissimilar.  In 
other  parts  of  Europe  few  early  churches  remain  in  such 
condition  that  their  general  design  can  be  made  out. 
There  seem   to  be  none   in   England.     The  sculpture  of 


Fig.  75.     Poitiers,  France :  Baptistery.     Eleventh  century. 


154 


EUROPE,   750  TO    1150  A.D. 


[Chap.   IV 


the  whole  epoch  was  exceedingly  rude,  and  found  perhaps 
its  lowest  degeneracy  in  the  seventh  century.  The  inter- 
lacings,  plaits,  and  twists  of  the  goldsmith's  work  and  the 
manuscript  illumination  of  the  time  were  copied  in  stone 
carving,  as  a  few  existing  remains  prove. 


II 


The  year  1050  may  be  taken  roughly  as  the  beginning 
of  an  era  of  higher  development  in  Romanesque  architec- 
ture.    Buildings  and  parts  of  buildings  which  are  known 

to  be  of  the 
half-century 
following  1050 
show  a  much 
more  complete 
and  a  more  or- 
ganized style 
than  what  had 
gone  before. 
Thus  in  the 
Clermont-Ferrand, 


Fig.  76. 


Qermont-Ferrand,  France :  Church  of  Notre  Dame  du 
Port.     Eleventh  century. 


church  of  Notre  Dame  du  Port  at 
though  there  is  no  doubt  that  the  plan  was  of  an  earlier 
date,  the  greater  part  of  the  exterior  is  of  the  eleventh 
century,  and  the  belfry-tower  and  the  apse  with  its  radi- 
ating chapels  are  certainly  of  the  time  we  are  considering. 
These  parts  of  the  building  though  restored  are  still  to 
be  taken  as  of  the  original  design ;  there  is  no  reason  to 
doubt  the  fidelity  of  the  restorer's  work.  The  plan  (Fig. 
76)  shows  how  chapels,  probably  of  the  eleventh  century, 


Fig.  77  (see  Fig.  76) . 


156  EUROPE,   750  TO    1150  A.D.  [Chap.   IV 

were  built  around  an  apse  of  the  tenth  century  or  of  an 
earher  time.  The  exterior  decoration  of  these  chapels 
and  of  the  clear-story  wall  of  the  apse,  and  also  the  vault- 
ing of  these  chapels  and  that  of  the  semicircular  aisle 
into  which  they  open,  are  all  of  an  advanced  Roman- 
esque style,  although  the  vaulting  of  the  high  nave  and 
its  aisles  is  certainly  of  an  earlier  date.  Figure  "i"] 
shows  the  system  of  vaulting  adopted.  It  will  be  seen 
that  it  is  but  a  slight  modification  in  principle  of  the 
Roman  groined  vaulting  (see  Figs.  29,  30,  and  67).  Fig- 
ure "]%  is  a  plan  of  a  part  of  the  aisle  running  around  this 

apse.  If  this  is  com- 
pared with  Fig.  ']'],  it 
will  be  seen  that  the 
barrel  -  vault  which 
roofs  this  roundinor 
aisle  is  penetrated  at 

FIG.  78  (see  Fig.  76).  ^^^j^   1^^^  1^^  ^^^   i^^^., 

rel-vaults,  one  above  the  window  and  about  as  wide  as  the 
main  vault,  the  other  between  the  columns  on  the  church 
side  and  very  much  narrower.  In  order  to  bring  the  tops 
or  crowns  of  these  arches  to  a  level,  the  narrow  inside 
arches  are  stilted,  or  raised  on  high  vertical  imposts  (see 
Fig.  '].'],  on  the  left).  The  exterior  shows  a  great  advance 
in  orderliness  and  in  maturity  of  design.  The  builders 
have  a  definite  and  a  very  clear  sense  of  the  architectural 
effect  of  windows,  buttresses,  cornices,  etc.,  and  the  curious 
mosaic  of  sandstone  of  different  colours  has  evidently  been 
adopted  with  deliberate  purpose  as  an  important  feature  in 
external  decoration. 


Sec.  II] 


THE   DEVELOPMENT  OF   VAULTING 


157 


The  church  of  S.  Front  at  Perigueux  offers  us  a  com- 
pletely different  scheme.  Whereas  the  church  at  Cler- 
mont-Ferrand is  of  the  basilica  type,  that  of  Perigueux  is 
of  the  Byzantine  type ;  in  plan  a  Greek  cross  with  naves 
about  thirty-five  feet  in  the  clear,  as  shown  in  Fig.  79,  and 
roofed  by  a  series  of  cupolas.     Figure  80  gives  a  diagram 


Fig.  79.     Perigueux,  France  :  Church  of  S.  Front.     Twelfth  century. 

of  the  interior  as  preserved  for  us  in  a  drawing  made  by 
Viollet-le-Duc  before  the  unfortunate  restorations  of  1865- 

1875. 

In  these  two  buildings  at  Clermont  and  at  Perigueux 
the  struggle  between  two  great  styles  is  plainly  visible. 
The  southern  and  eastern  influence,  strongly  felt  in  some 
parts  of  northern   and   western    Europe,  made  for  cupola 


158  EUROPE,   750  TO    1 150   A.D. 


[Chap.  IV 


Fig.  80  (see  Fig.  79). 


vaulting  and  plans  of  no  great  extension,  —  square,  or  cru- 
ciform with  short  arms.  So  far  as  the  four  arms  approach 
equality  among  themselves,  the  plan  approaches  the  Greek 


Sec.  II] 


THE  DEVELOPMENT  OF  VAULTING 


159 


cross,  as  in  S.  Front  and  its  prototype,  S.  Mark  of  Venice. 
What  may  be  called  the  Latin  influence  —  that  is,  the 
power  of  the  example  of  Rome  itself  and  its  neighbour- 
hood —  made  for  the  basilica  form  of  church ;  and  the 
basilica  plan  called  for  vaulting  with  barrel-vaults  or 
groined  vaults.  With  the  cupola  system  of  vaulting  any 
surface  could  be  easily  roofed.  A  chapel  of  irregular 
shape  as  well  as  a 
perfectly  square 
apartment  could 
receive  a  cupola 
(see  A  and  B, 
Fig.  81),  where 
it  will  be  seen 
that  the  penden- 
tives,  though  ir- 
regular in  plan, 
will  be  no  more 
difficult  to  con- 
struct in  A  than 
'\x\  B,  In  spite 
of  this  the  tendency  was  strongly  toward  the  basilica  plan 
and  the  groined  vaulting.  The  cupola  system  and  the 
Byzantine  style  of  church  prevailed  but  in  few  regions  of 
the  north  of  Europe.  In  the  neighbourhood  of  Perigueux 
and  through  a  considerable  part  of  western  France,  the 
system  of  cupolas  on  pendentives  prevailed.  The  churches 
of  S.  Etienne  (S.  Stephen)  at  Perigueux  with  a  forty-six- 
foot  nave,  S.  Etienne  at  Cahors  with  a  fifty-foot  nave,  the 


Fig.  81. 


cathedral    church    of 


Angouleme 


and    the    churches    of 


l60  EUROPE,  750  TO   1 150  A.D.  [Chap.  IV 

Saint  Avit-Senieur  and  Saint  Jean  de  Cole,  in  the  region 
which  now  makes  the  departments  of  the  Dordogne  and 
the  Lot,  are  all  domed  structures,  built  in  evident  imita- 
tion of  S.  Front  at  Perigueux.  Elsewhere  in  the  north 
the  basilica  plan  prevailed,  and  it  is  necessary  to  describe 
the  system  of  groin-vaulting  as  it  took  shape  in  the  elev- 
enth century,  because  it  is  upon  this  that  the  new  style  of 
church  building  mainly  depends,  while  to  church  building 
all  other  decorative  construction  was  subordinate, — a  mere 
humble  copying  of  a  few  of  its  details. 

The  Roman  groined  vault  gave  the  mediaeval  builders 
infinite  annoyance  because  of  its  powerful  thrust  and 
because  it  would  seem  that  they  could  not  make  up  their 
minds  to  build  buttresses  of  great  projection.  The  build- 
ing of  a  buttress  two  or  three  feet  thick  and  extending 
six  or  seven  feet  out  at  right  angles  with  the  wall  was 
expensive,  very  troublesome  as  to  its  angles  and  its  neces- 
sary bonding  with  the  wall,  and  as  to  the  necessary  pro- 
tection at  the  top  against  rain.  In  times  of  rapid  and 
dextrous  building  it  is  hard  to  understand  the  fumbling 
and  awkward  way  in  which  such  work  would  be  under- 
taken in  a  thinly  settled  and  impoverished  country,  devoid 
of  workmen  of  experience  and  training.  The  vault  itself, 
consisting  of  small  stones  held  together  by  weak  mortar, 
and  made  as  thin  as  the  builder  dared  put  it  up,  in  order 
to  save  transportation  of  material,  was  a  very  different 
thing  from  the  Roman  groined  vault ;  less  steady,  much 
less  resistant,  but  in  a  sense  more  elastic.  To  strengthen 
it  and  to  help  the  masons  in  putting  up  their  centring, 
it  became  customary  to  build  a  broad  and  deep  arch  across 


Sec.  II] 


THE  DEVELOPMENT  OF   VAULTING 


l6l 


the  aisle  or  nave,  and  to  build  upon  and  above  this  the 
groined  vault,  not  otherwise  changed  in  form  from  its 
Roman  prototype.  The  vaults  of  the  aisles  at  Vezelay 
(Fig.  82)  are  a  good  instance  of  this  construction.  It  is 
to  be  observed  that  when  such  transverse  arches  were  used 
to  span  the  aisles 
it  was  compara- 
tively easy  to 
build  upon  them 
stout  cross-walls 
serving  as  but- 
tresses for  the 
high  roof  of  the 
nave  when  that 
was  vaulted.  The 
Roman  custom 
had  been  to  make 
such  groined 
vaults  exactly 
square  in  plan, 
and  this  was  the 
most  natural  and 
easiest    form    to 

build         When      Fig.  82.     Vezelay,  France :  Abbey  church.     Built  in  twelfth 

century.     A,  the  transverse  arch. 

however,  a  broad 

nave  was  placed  between  two  narrow  aisles,  and  separated 
from  them  by  pillars,  which  fixed  the  width  of  the  main 
divisions  or  bays,  it  is  clear  that  the  compartments  of  the 
nave  would  not  be  square  if  those  of  the  aisles  were  so,  and 
the  reverse  (see  Figs.  83  and  84).     The  difficult  question 


1 62 


EUROPE,   750  TO    1 150  A.D. 


[Chap.  IV 


then  arose  how  to  vault  the  oblong  compartments.  The 
Romans,  as  we  have  seen,  avoided  the  difficulty ;  nowhere 
in  their  work  could  the  eleventh  century  builders  find  an 
example  to  guide  them.     It  seems  never  to  have  occurred 


Fig.  83.     Diagram  of  vaulting  where  the  aisles  are  divided  into  squares. 

to  the  Romans,  nor  to  their  imitators  in  the  eleventh 
century,  to  use  the  form  of  vault  which  became  so  common 
in  the  sixteenth  century  (see  Fig.  85,  and  compare  Figs. 
215  and  234).  This  form,  however,  is  that  which  results 
naturally  from  allowing  a  small  cylinder  to  meet  and  inter- 


Sec.  II] 


THE  DEVELOPMENT  OF  VAULTING 


163 


sect  with  a  larger  one.  Instead  of  this  plan,  which  seems 
to  modern  builders  the  obvious  one,  the  eleventh-century 
workmen  adopted  modifications  of  the  one  shown  in  Figs. 
83  and  84.     In  Fig.  83  it  is  assumed  that  the  aisles  are 


Fig.  84.     Diagram  of  vaulting  where  the  nave  is  divided  into  squares. 

divided  into  squares,  and  the  nave  consequently  into  paral- 
lelograms as  wide  as  the  squares  of  the  aisle.  The  figure 
gives  an  outline  plan  of  one  bay  and  a  perspective  view 


164 


EUROPE,  750  TO   1 150  A.D. 


[Chap.  IV 


Fig.  85. 


of  the  three  vaults  seen  from  below.  It  will  be  seen  that 
the  two  vaults  of  the  aisles  are  made  up  of  cylindrical  sur- 
faces; that  is  to  say,  these  vaults,  like  the  Roman  vaults 
shown  in  Figs.  29  and  67,  are  made  up  of  two  cylinders 

of  equal  size  which  intersect  one 
another.  The  strong  lines  drawn 
on  the  surface  of  these  vaults  are, 
it  will  be  seen,  straight  lines,  and 
these  show  that  the  surfaces  are 
those  of  cylinders.  On  the  other 
hand,  the  vault  over  the  parallelo- 
gram of  the  nave  is  made  up  of  a 
cylinder  meeting  another  curved  surface  which  is  not  a  cyl- 
inder, as  is  shown  by  the  strong  lines  here,  which  are  not 
straight,  but  curved.  The  system  adopted  is  farther  shown 
in  Fig.  86,  where,  although  the  arch  on  AB  is  a  large 
half-circle,  as  is  shown  in  the 
broken  curve,  and  the  arch 
on  ^C  a  small  half-circle, 
yet  the  intersections  of  the 
two  vaulted  surfaces,  that  is 
to  say  the  groins,  are  made 
to  meet  one  another  at  the 
centre  O.  The  Romanesque 
builders  seem  to  have  been 
resolute  to  keep  the  plan  of 
each  parallelogram  of  vaulting  like  that  shown  in  Fig. 
86,  with  the  diagonal  lines  AD  and  CB  representing  the 
intersections  or  groins.  Now  this  could  only  be  obtained 
by  giving  to  the  surface  of  the  vault  above  the  triangle 


Fig.  86. 


Sec.  II] 


THE   DEVELOPxMENT  OF   VAULTING 


165 


AOC  a  shape  which  the  EngHsh  writers  speak  of  as 
annular,  calHng  such  a  vault  an  annular  vault,  although  it 
is  not  strictly  part  of  a  mathematical  annular  surface. 
The  French  writers  call  it,  with  greater  approach  to  accu- 
racy, vouie  ellipsdidale ;  but  it  is  really  a  curved  surface 
which  is  not  described  by  any  geometrical  term.  Some- 
times the  smaller  round  arch  at  ^C  is  raised  above  the 
impost,  as  indicated  by  the  broken  lines  in  Fig.  %"],  where 
A'C  is  the  springing  line  of    the  round    arch,  and   the 

lines  A  A'  and  CO  denote  

the  distance  which  this 
arch  is  raised  above  the 
impost.  An  arch  treated 
in  this  way  is  said  to  be 
stilted.  If  the  small  arch 
is  raised  so  high  that  its 
crown  P'  comes  on  the 
same  level  with  the  crown 
of  the  larger  arch  P,  the 
resulting  surface  of  the  tri- 
angular vault  AOC  is  extremely  complicated  and  ugly;  if, 
on  the  other  hand,  the  smaller  round  arch  is  not  stilted  at 
all,  the  clear-story  window  under  it  will  be  low  and  small 
and  the  vault  insuflficiently  lighted.  The  plan  usually 
followed  was  to  stilt  the  smaller  round  arch  somewhat,  but 
not  nearly  so  much  as  to  bring  P'  on  a  level  with  P.  Fig- 
ure 88  shows  the  resulting  vault  where  M  and  N  are  the 
transverse  arches,  AC  the  springing  line  of  the  smaller  arch 
as  in  Figs.  86  and  87,  P  the  crown  of  that  smaller  arch, 
and  X  the  vault  over  the  triangle  AOC'iYi  Figs.  86  and  87. 


Fig.  87. 


1 66 


EUROPE,  750  TO    1 1 50  A.D. 


[Chap.  IV 


Another  system  was  resorted  to  in  order  to  avoid  the 
difficulty  of  vaulting  a  long  and  narrow  parallelogram. 
This  system  is  the  one  adopted  in  many  German  and 
many    Italian    churches.      The   vaults  are    all    square    in 

plan,  or  nearly 
so  ;  the  width  of 
the  nave  being 
assumed  about 
double  that  of 
the  aisles.  Fig- 
ure 89  shows 
this  plan,  which 
is  nearly  that  of 
the  vaulting  of 
the  cathedrals 
of  Worms  in 
Hesse  Darm- 
stadt and  Spires 
or  Speyer  in 
Bavaria.  Stout 
transverse  arches  separate  all  the  squares,  and  stiffen 
if  they  do  not  exactly  support  them.  In  such  plans  as 
these  every  alternate  pillar  is  pressed  sidewise  by  the  aisle 
arches,  which  act  upon  one  side  only,  and  therefore  is  in 
danger  of  being  forced  out  of  the  vertical  and  made  to  lean 
toward  the  nave.  This  difficulty  was  not  so  great,  however, 
as  to  prevent  the  common  use  of  the  plan  in  question. 
In  the  church  of  S.  Ambrogio,  at  Milan,  the  same  general 
plan  is  followed,  and  the  aisles  are  vaulted  as  at  Spires, 
but  a  great  change    occurs  in  the   vaulting  of  the   large 


Sec.  II] 


THE   DEVELOPMENT  OF  VAULTING 


167 


squares  into  which  the  nave  is  divided.  Large  transverse 
arches  cross  the  nave,  and  other  arches,  also  of  large  sec- 
tion and  strongly  built,  are  carried  diagonally  from  pillar 
to  pillar,  as  shown  in  Fig.  90.  These  diagonal  arches  are 
carried  up  much  higher  than  the  transverse  arches  ;  in  fact, 
they  are  exactly  or  nearly  semicircular,  and  therefore  their 
crowns  rise  higher  than  the  crowns  of  the  smaller  semi- 
circular arches  which  cross  the  nave  at  right  angles.  The 
vault  built  above  these  heavy  separate  arches  is  a  contin- 
uous cupola  of 
a  shape  which 
cannot  be  ac- 
curately de- 
scribed, hav- 
ing no  true 
mathematical 
form.  It  does 
not  rest  upon 
the  arches  be- 
neath, which 
seem  to  have 
been  put  in 
merely  to  as- 
sist in  building 
the  wooden 
centring  upon 
which  the  cupola 
the    same    general 


Fig.  89. 


was  formed.  Another  building  with 
arrangement  of  plan  is  S.  Michele 
at  Pavia,  of  which  Fig.  91  shows  the  elevation  toward 
the  nave  of  one  great  bay  including  two  bays  of  the  aisle. 


i68 


EUROPE,  750  TO   1 1 50  A.D. 


[Chap.  IV 


This  elevation  may  be  used  with  the  section 
(Fig.  90)  to  explain  the   construction  of 
these   two  churches,  as   they  are  -- 

very   similar   in    every   re- 
spect.    S.    Michele, 
like   S.    Am- 


.---^ 


brogio, 


1 1  1 1  I  1 


_L 


20 


Fig.  90.  Milan,  Italy :  Church  of  S.  Ambrogio,  rebuilt 
in  the  twelfth  century.  Part  of  cross  section,  with 
nave  and  aisles. 


is  noticeable 
for  the  great 
difference  in  size 
of  the  piers,  those 
which  carry  the 
nave  roof,  as  well 
as  their  share  of 
the  aisle  roof,  and 
those  which  carry 
the  aisle  roof  alone ; 
although  in  this  re- 
spect S.  Ambrogio 
eoes  a  little  further 
into  extremes  than 
S.  Michele.  Any 
one  bay  of  either 
of  these  churches 
is  a  beautiful  com- 
position ;  the  mas- 
siveness  of  the 
great  piers  leads 
naturally  and  agree- 
ably to  the  ponder- 


Sec.  II] 


THE  DEVELOPMENT  OF  VAULTING 


169 


Fig.  91.     Pavia,  Italy:  S.  Michele,  one  bay  of  nave.     Eleventh  and  twelfth  centuries. 

ous   vault    above,    and    the   lighter   piers    between    them 
cause  only  a  pleasant  surprise  that  they  should  be  found 


I/O  EUROPE,  750  TO    1 1 50  A.D.  [Chap.  IV 

sufficient  for  their  own  task.  Any  one  bay,  whether 
looked  at  on  one  side  only  as  a  single  flat  composition 
or  as  the  means  of  covering  the  whole  width  of  the 
church  for  the  length  of  about  fifty  feet,  is  a  fine  archi- 
tectural conception ;  but  it  failed  to  wan  approval  in  the 
regions  which  we  now  call  France,  and  which,  from  the 
twelfth  to  the  fifteenth  century  inclusive,  embraced  those 
countries  of  Europe  where  architectural  art  was  the  most 
living  and  the  most  progressive.  One  reason  for  this  is 
that  the  great  bays,  forty-six  or  forty-eight  feet  from  cen- 
tre to  centre,  reduced  the  apparent  length  of  the  church 
by  their  smaller  number  and  their  greater  size.  Thus  at 
S.  Michele  there  are  only  two  great  bays  in  the  length  of 
the  church,  and  at  S.  Ambrogio,  which,  however,  passes  for 
a  good-sized  and  well-proportioned  basilica,  there  are  but 
four.  Another  and  probably  more  weighty  reason  is  the 
bad  logic  which  the  builders  must  have  observed  in  such  a 
plan ;  for  why  should  each  alternate  pillar  differ  so  widely 
from  its  neighbours  ?  Why  should  not  each  pillar  of  the 
row  dividing  the  nave  from  an  aisle  be  like  every  other  ? 
If  these  pillars  were  made  exactly  alike  in  themselves,  and 
in  the  work  they  have  to  do,  the  result  would  be  an  arrange- 
ment by  which  the  nave  would  be  divided  into  as  many 
separate  compartments  of  vaulting  as  either  aisle ;  one  to 
one  in  the  whole  length  of  the  church.  This  is  the  plan 
which  was  destined  to  prevail  in  Burgundy,  in  Champagne, 
in  Picardy,  and  throughout  almost  the  whole  region  which 
we  now  call  France.  The  great  churches  of  western  Ger- 
many, such  as  the  cathedrals  of  Spires,  Worms,  Mayence, 
and  Bamberg,  were  all  arranged  on  the  plan  of  S.  Michele 


Sec.  II] 


THE   DEVELOPMENT   OF  VAULTING 


171 


and  S.  Ambrogio ;  but  the  German  builders  tried  to  over- 
come the  serious  objections  to  this  plan ;  namely,  that  it 
diminishes  the  apparent  length  of  the  nave,  by  making 
each  bay  proportionally  very  narrow  and  very  high.  Thus 
in  Mayence  Cathe- 
dral each  bay  of  the 
nave  is  in  wddth, 
measured  along  the 
nave,  as  compared 
with  the  width  across 
the  nave,  only  as  seven 
to  ten,  whereas  in  S. 
Michele  of  Pavia  the 
relative  dimensions 
are  nearly  the  reverse 
of  this.  In  other  words, 
one  of  the  nave  vault- 
ings is  a  parallelo- 
gram of  seven  by  ten 
or  nearly  so,  in  either 
church,  but  in  the 
Italian  example  the 
greater  length  is  along 
the  nave,  while  in  the 
German  example  it  is 
across  the  nave.  So, 
as  regards  the  height:  in  either  of  the  Italian  churches 
named,  the  total  height  to  the  crown  of  the  vault  is  less 
than  once  and  a  half  of  the  width  of  a  great  bay,  but 
at  Mayence  the  total  height  is  more  than  two  and  a  half 


o 

I  I  I  I  I 


^5 


Fig.  92.     Spires,  Prussia:   Cathedral.     Interior. 
Eleventh  and  twelfth  centuries. 


172  EUROPE,  750  TO    1 1 50  A.D.  [Chai>.  IV 

times  that  width.  Figure  91  may  be  compared  with  Fig. 
92  for  the  importance  of  this  modification.  It  must  also 
be  observed  that  the  German  churches  are  generally  so 
much  longer  than  the  Italian  ones,  that  they  have  not 
so  much  to  fear  the  shortening  effect  of  too  few  and  too 
large  parts.  In  Mayence  Cathedral  the  otherwise  too 
short  nave  is  immensely  lengthened  in  effect  by  the  square 
of  the  tower  and  the  two  apses  which  prolong  it ;  in 
Worms  there  are  five  great  bays,  and  here  again  the  tower 
and  the  apses  play  their  part ;  in  Spires  there  are  six  great 
bays :  in  fact,  all  the  German  round-arched  cathedrals  had 
great  length  of  nave  given  them  as  one  of  their  elements 
of  architectural  effect. 

The  abbey  church  at  Vezelay  in  Burgundy  is  as  good 
an  example  as  exists  of  the  fully  developed  Romanesque 
interior,  according  to  the  system  described  above  (p.  170), 
in  which  one  compartment  of  the  nave  corresponds  to  one 
of  each  aisle.  Figure  82  gives  a  view  of  one  of  the  aisles ; 
in  Fig.  93  is  given  the  great  nave,  seen  from  the  choir.  It 
will  be  seen  that  the  principal  vaults  are  built  on  the  same 
general  plan  as  those  of  the  aisles ;  but  it  will  be  seen  also 
that  the  vaults  of  the  nave  have  sunk.  The  transverse 
arches  have  been  put  out  of  shape  to  such  an  extent 
that  they  are  no  longer  even  approximately  semicircular, 
but  approach  visibly  the  form  called  basket-handled,  or 
three-centred.  In  other  words,  the  walls  and  piers  were 
forced  apart  by  the  thrust  of  these  very  arches,  yielding 
under  the  weight  of  the  vaults  and  of  their  own  materials, 
and  as  they  spread,  the  crowns  of  the  arches  came  down, 
until  the  whole  fabric  was  endangered.     Flying  buttresses 


Sec.  II] 


THE   DEVELOPMENT   OF  VAULTING 


173 


were  built,  and  these  restored  the  equihbrium  and  saved 
the  church,  but  these  were  an  afterthought.  Their  style 
is  much  later  than  that  of  the  interior. 

It  is  to  be  noted  that  the  action  of  the  thrust  of  arches 
upon  the  walls  of  a  building  is  very  gradual.     For  some 


Fig.  93.     Vezelay  (see  Fig.  82). 

months  or  years  all  may  seem  to  be  safe  and  in  good 
order,  and  when  the  effects  of  the  thrust  become  visible,  it 
will  generally  be  too  late  to  save  the  perfect  shape  and 
symmetry  of  the  building,  although  it  may  be  kept  from 
falling.  Accordingly  there  are  very  many  buildings  of 
the  eleventh  and  twelfth  centuries  which  show  the  action 


174  EUROPE,  750  TO  1 1 50  A.D.  [Chap,  IV 

of  the  nave-vaults  in  an  outward  slope  of  their  upper  walls 
or  piers;  the  mischief  having  been  stopped  by  flying 
buttresses  built  up,  or  by  iron  tie-rods  put  in,  in  time  to 
save  the  building  from  entire  collapse. 

Many  buildings  were  erected  or  completed  during  this 
period  of  developed  Romanesque  in  which  different 
styles  of  vaulting  were  tried.  Thus  the  church  called 
La  Martorana  at  Palermo  was  probably  not  completed 
until  about  1140,  a  time  when  the  beginnings  of  Gothic 
architecture  were  showing  themselves  in  the  north,  as  we 
shall  see  in  the  next  chapter;  and  yet  this  church  is 
vaulted  in  an  archaic  fashion,  reminding  one  of  the 
primitive  church  of  Treves  in  Germany  and  of  other 
buildings  of  early  Christian  times.  It  is  a  good  system 
of  vaulting,  easy  to  build,  permanent,  capable  of  charming 
decoration  by  means  of  painting  or  mosaic,  but  involving 
a  peculiar  plan,  divided  into  squares  and  rectangles,  each 
of  which  is  filled  with  its  own  vault,  which  may  be  of 
almost  any  system,  and  involving  also  a  host  of  columns 
or  pillars  at  the  angles  of  the  squares  and  rectangles.  This 
plan  has  its  prototype  in  the  great  cisterns  of  Constanti- 
nople (see  p.  142),  and  is  frequently  put  to  use  in  later 
styles,  incapable  as  it  seems  of  a  considerable  development. 
No  great  style  of  architecture  could  grow  out  of  it  so  long 
as  the  buildings  most  in  demand  were  Christian  churches, 
because  for  these  a  large  and  unincumbered  interior  was 
necessary,  and  that  style  was  sure  to  win,  other  things 
being  equal,  which  offered  that  advantage. 


Sec.  Ill] 


RESULTING   ARCHITECTURAL   FORMS 


175 


III 

The  plan  of  the  cathedral  of  Peterborough  in  England 
shows  how  a  Romanesque  church  of  large  size  was  con- 
ceived (Fig.  94).  Such  a  church  would  have  its  aisles 
vaulted  as  indicated  on  the  plan  as  soon  as  the  bishop 
of  the  diocese  could  command  a  very  small  spare  annual 
sum  and  the  services 
of  a  tolerable  master- 
mason.  The  clear-story 
of  the  choir  and  that 
of  the  nave  would  not 
be  vaulted  until  the 
resources  of  the  dio- 
cese were  considerably  ^ 
greater.  In  the  mean- 
time a  wooden  ceiling 
would  be  built  above  the 
clear-story,  either  flat 
and  with  bright-coloured 
painting  for  its  only 
decoration,  or  carried  along  the  lines  of  the  rafters  and 
collar  beam  in  such  a  way  as  to  seem  crowned  up 
in  the  middle,  and  to  leave  exposed  a  small  part  of 
the  roof  timbers.  Such  a  roof,  however,  was  frequently 
burned,  or  in  other  ways  injured,  and  accordingly  renewed 
in  a  new  style.  Figure  95  shows  the  choir  of  Peter- 
borough Cathedral,  which  dates  from  about  11 25,  to- 
gether with  a  part  of  the  south  transept,   and  the  choir 


o 

I  I  I 


fO       JO 


3o 


40       5*0 


Fig.  94.  Peterborough,  England :  Cathedral. 
Plan  of  part  of  nave,  close  of  twelfth  cen- 
tury. The  aisles  are  vaulted;  the  nave  has 
a  wooden  ceiling. 


1/6 


EUROPE,   750  TO    1 1 50  A.D. 


[Chap.  IV 


aisle  and  the  gallery  on  the  southern  side.  The  ceiling  is 
only  indicated  in  our  illustration,  as  the  style  of  the  present 
one  is  of  wood  and  of 
a  much  later  date. 

Mention  has  been 
made  above  (see 
p.    149)   of   the  two 


Fig.  95.     Peterborough,  England :    Cathedral,  choir  and  south  aisle  of  choir,  seen  from 

south  transept. 


Sec.  Ill] 


RESULTING   ARCHITECTURAL   FORMS 


177 


typical  plans  which  developed  themselves  from  the  original 
basilica  plan.  It  was  stated  that  the  Romanesque  plan 
proper  had  at  the  east  end  three  apses,  turned  to  the  east, 
north,  and  south,  as  shown  in  Fig.  71.  The  plan  of  the 
cathedral  of  Tournai  in  Belgium  is  an  excellent  instance  of 
this  typical  Romanesque  plan.     The  great  square  is  con- 


Fig.  96.     Tournai,  Belgium  :  Cathedral,  towers  of  tenth  and  eleventh  centuries. 

tinned  upward  in  a  tower,  as  explained  above  (p.  149),  and 
this  tower,  though  low,  is  roofed  by  a  lofty  octagonal  spire. 
Four  slender  square  towers  roofed  in  like  manner  with 
square  wooden  spires  are  set,  two  on  the  northern,  two  on 
the  southern,  side,  so  that  the  whole  central  group  of  five, 
rising  high  above  the  nave  and  above  the  houses  of  the 
town,  is  extraordinarily  effective  and  is  unsurpassed  by  the 


1/8  EUROPE,    750  TO    1 150  A.D.  [Chap.  IV 

central  mass  of  any  cathedral  in  Europe  (see  Fig.  96).  An 
extremely  effective  interior  was  also  obtained ;  the  visitor 
entering  by  the  doors  of  the  west  end  sees  before  him  the 
long  uniform  series  of  the  arcades  of  the  nave  lighted  only 
by  small  windows,  and  beyond  this  the  sudden  expansion 
both  upward  and  horizontally  of  the  square  and  the  three 
apses  filled  with  light  from  numerous  and  high  windows 
which  are  not  obstructed  by  any  interior  architectural 
dispositions.  When  the  high  altar  is  placed  in  the 
middle  of  this  great  square,  as  is  now  done  in  the  cathe- 
dral of  Florence,  the  most  perfect  combination  of  the 
moral  and  architectural  centre  points  of  the  church  is 
obtained. 

The  architectural  details  of  the  developed  Romanesque 
style  are  of  great  interest  and  deserve  analytical  observa- 
tion and  criticism.  They  are  generally  extremely  simple 
and  obvious,  the  doorways  being  the  most  natural  open- 
ings in  a  thick  wall,  with  very  little  added  ornamentation 
in  the  way  of  gables  and  the  like,  such  as  we  shall  find  so 
common  in  Gothic  architecture.  Plate  I.  gives  the  princi- 
pal front  of  the  cathedral  of  Angouleme,  in  which  elaborate 
carved  ornament  is  seen  combined  with  a  plain  structure. 
Figure  97  shows  the  interior  of  the  galilee  of  Durham 
Cathedral  in  the  north  of  England.  The  zigzag  ornamen- 
tation of  the  arches  is  peculiar  to  the  Romanesque  archi- 
tecture of  northwestern  Europe.  The  capitals  of  the 
clustered  pillars  are  not  as  rich  as  many  to  be  found  in 
England  and  on  the  continent.  The  attractiveness  of  this 
building  is  in  the  lightness  of  the  structure,  very  unusual 
for  the  time.     Figure  98  gives  a  portion  of  the  cloister  of 


PLATE    I.        WEST    FRONT    OF   THE    CATHEDRAL   OF   ANGOULImE   (CHARENTE)    FRANCE 
First    half   of   XII    Century;     Restored    1870-75. 


Sec.  IIIJ 


RESULTING  ARCHITECTURAL  FORMS 


179 


Fig.  97.     Durham,  England :  Galilee  of  Cathedral.     Close  of  the  twelfth  century. 

S.  Trophime  at  Aries  in  southern  France,  interesting  for 
the  free  use  of  figure  sculpture  combined  with  leafage. 

Windows,  so  rich  in  later  styles,  are  small  and  rather 
plain  ;■  it  is  but  seldom  that  windows  are  very  noticeable  in 


Fig.  98.     Aries,  France :    S.  Trophime.     Cloister.     Twelfth  century. 


Sec.  IV]  LATER  BYZANTINE  BUILDINGS  l8l 

Romanesque.  Towers  are  of  great  interest  throughout  the 
century  1050-1150,  and  are  particularly  splendid  toward 
the  close  of  this  epoch.  That  of  the  church  at  Vendome 
on  the  railroad  between  Paris  and  Tours,  finished  about 
1 140  (Fig.  99),  is  an  instance  of  the  highest  possible  beauty. 
It  stands  free  of  the  church,  which  has  been  rebuilt  in  the 
Flamboyant  style  of  the  fifteenth  century.  Although  the 
arches  are  bluntly  pointed,  the  tower  is  purely  Romanesque 
in  conception  and  construction.  It  is  well,  at  the  close  of 
this  chapter,  to  see  an  instance  of  the  pointed  arch  show- 
ing itself  timidly  in  Romanesque  work  before  it  had  been 
adopted  as  a  constructional  feature.  In  another  tower,  later 
but  not  much  later,  the  round  arch  is  preserved  through- 
out, while  the  lightness  of  construction  and  the  great  skill 
displayed  are  already  of  the  Gothic  style.  This  is  the 
central  tower  of  the  little  church  of  Vernouillet  twenty- 
two  miles  northwest  of  Paris,  shown  in  a  very  accurate 
drawing  (Fig.  100). 

IV 

The  architecture  of  the  Byzantine  Empire  continued 
much  more  nearly  on  the  lines  of  its  own  past  than  any 
Western  architecture  could  do.  Though  with  greatly 
diminished  territory  and  resources,  the  Empire  still  held 
up  the  standard  of  classical  civilization  until  the  ruinous 
and  fatal  capture  of  Constantinople  by  the  crusaders  in 
1203.  The  church  of  S.  Irene  was  built  in  the  ninth 
century,  and  is  a  building  admirable  in  plan  and  general 
interior  effect,  and  different  from  any  Western  church, 
having  a  nave  roofed  by  two  large  cupolas,  one  of  which, 


I82 


EUROPE,    750  TO    1 150  A.D. 


[Chap.  IV 


A 


the  easterly  one,  rises  higher  than 
the  rest,  as  if  to  mark  the  neigh- 
bourhood of  the  altar  and  sanc- 
tuary. A  vaulted  aisle  surrounds 
this  on  three  sides,  and  above 
the  vaulting  of  the  aisles  is  a 
great  gallery  roofed  only  by  the 
high  vaults  which  flank  the  cu- 
polas. The  church  of  H.  Sophia 
at  Salonika  has  three  apses  at 
the  east  end  and  one  cupola. 
The  church  of  S.  Mark  at  Venice 
is  as  purely  Byzantine  as  any 
more  Eastern  church  so  far  as 
its  actual  construction  is  con- 
cerned. At  the  time  of  the  res- 
torations of  1 88 1 -1 883,  it  became 
possible  to  judge  of  what  the 
church  was  originally,  that  is  to 
say,  before  it  was  sheathed  with 
marble,  and  it  was  found  to  re- 
semble in  exterior  design,  as  it 
was  known  to  resemble  in  con- 
struction, the  tenth  century 
churches  of  Constantinople  and 
Salonika.  The  church  of  Hagia 
Theotokos  at  Constantinople  was 
built  in  the  tenth   century,  and 

Fig.  99.     Vendome,  France :  Tower  of  the 
Church.      1 130-1 150. 


Sec.  IV] 


LATER   BYZAXTIXE   BUILDINGS 


183 


here  a  more  elaborate  ex- 
terior design  in  coloured 
materials  was  used,  but  all 
these  churches  resemble 
one  another  strongly.  Fig- 
ure loi  gives  a  plan  of  the 
Theotokos  church,  and 
Fig.  102  a  view  of  its  prin- 
cipal front.  The  church 
is  not  large ;  indeed  it  is 
unusually  narrow,  and  be- 
ing fronted  with  a  splen- 
did narthex,  five  cupolas 
in  length,  and  projecting 
beyond  the  flanks  of  the 
church,  is  perhaps  unique 
in  the  T-shaped  plan 
which  results  from  this. 

In  Athens  and  other 
places  in  Greece,  in  Treb- 
izond,  and  in  the  different 
towns  of  the  Turkish  Em- 
pire from  Servia  to  Jeru- 
salem, small  Byzantine 
churches  continue  in  use 
to  this  day,  and  these  have 
been  rebuilt  at  different 
times  during  the  last  nine 
hundred  years  without  its 

Fu;.  100.     Vernouillet,  France  :  Belfry 
of  Church.     About  1190. 


|84 


EUROPE,   750  TO   1 1 50  A.D. 


[Chap.  IV 


being  possible  in  the  present  state  of  our  knowledge  to 
classify  their  slightly  changing  styles  with  any  accuracy. 
Byzantine  architecture,  containing  within  itself  the  possi- 
bilities of  exterior  effect  as  well  as  its  well-known  interior 


Fig.  101.     Constantinople,  Turkey :  Church  of  the  Theotokos.     Beginning  of  tenth 

century. 


splendour,  has  been  signally  unfortunate  in  the  political 
and  social  condition  of  the  lands  in  which  it  is  at  home- 
Under  different  but  equally  unfavourable  conditions  its 
part  in  the  architecture  of  the  Mohammedan  nations  was 


Sec.  IV] 


LATER   BYZANTINE   BUILDINGS 


185 


la-3.3-: 


B 


DzzdcxKfi: 


E^SSKMsj* 


._i,__L^-.Jq 


Fig.  102.     Constantinople  (see  Fig.  ioi). 

played ;  and  apart  from  this  its  only  development  on  a 
large  scale  has  been  in  Russia,  where  whim  and  paradox 
rather  than  good  taste  seem  to  have  directed  it.  Native 
Russian  decorative  art  is  not  without  its  merits  as  a  semi- 
Oriental  style,  centuries  old  ;  and  its  rough  building  of 
timber  is  as  well  worthy  of  study  as  Swiss  or  Tyrolese 
wooden  construction ;  but  the  church  architecture  devel- 
oped from  the  later  Byzantine  cupola  churches  is  appar- 
ently not  worthy  to  rank  with  the  church  building  of 
western  Europe. 


CHAPTER   V 

THE  ARCHITECTURE  OF  WESTERN  EUROPE,  1150  TO 
1300  A.D.  Gothic  Architecture  is  developed  from  Romanesque 
IN  France.  Spain  and  Belgium  and  Western  Germany  adopt  it 
quickly.  England  modifies  the  Romanesque  by  Gothic  Features 
quickly,  and  Eastern  Germany  does  the  same  more  slowly.  In 
Italy  the  Style  is  introduced  complete,  apparently  from  Eastern 
France,  but  n  is  not  understood  nor  adopted  as  a  National  Style. 

I 

At  the  middle  of  the  twelfth  century,  as  we  have  seen 
in  Chapter  IV.,  the  church  buildings  of  northern  and 
western  Europe  had  assumed  a  character  far  more  solid 
and  enduring,  and  an  appearance  far  more  artistical,  than 
those  of  the  eight  previous  centuries.  Moreover,  the  con- 
stant efforts  of  the  builders  toward  a  complete  system  of 
vaulting  for  their  church  roofs  had  so  far  succeeded  that 
two  systems  had  reached  a  certain  excellence :  first,  the 
cupola  supported  on  pendentives,  as  at  S.  Front  of  Peri- 
gueux ;  second,  the  groined  vault  copied  from  the  Roman 
as  to  its  form,  but  very  much  lighter  in  build  and  alto- 
gether much  less  solid  and  permanent,  but  also  more  elas- 
tic, and  exerting  a  continual  outward  pressure  upon  the 

walls  or  piers.     About  the  middle  of  this  century  a  new 

186 


Sec.  I] 


ORIGIN   OF  GOTHIC:    FRANCE 


187 


feature  appears.  It  will  be  remembered  that  the  light  and 
weak  groined  vault  required  a  heavy  transverse  arch  thrown 
across  the  nave  or  the  aisle  between  every  two  squares 
of  vaulting  (see  pp.  160,  161).  Furthermore,  a  glance  at 
the  groined  vault,  as  shown  in  Figs.  29,  30,  67,  82,  and  93, 
will  show  that  the  masonry  at  the  groin,  that  is  at  the 
angle  of  intersection  between  the  two  cylinders  which  meet 
and  intersect  one  another,  would  naturally  be  made  more 
perfect  and  exact  than 
that  of  the  other  parts 
of  the  vault.  This 
groin  or  angle  of  inter- 
section begins  com- 
monly at  its  impost  as 
a  sharp  right  angle; 
and  as  the  vault  rises 
toward  the  crown, 
this  angle  becomes 
more  and  more  ob- 
tuse, and  finally  no 
angle  at  all,  lost  in  the  cupola-like  curved  surface  of  the 
crown  of  the  vault.  Nothing  could  be  more  natural 
than  to  cut  the  stones  which  form  this  groin,  and  even 
to  put  them  in  place,  in  part  at  least,  without  waiting 
for  the  smaller  and  less  careful  masonry  of  the  shell  be- 
tween them.  Besides  the  groins,  there  are  the  edges  of 
the  vault  coming  next  the  wall,  which  might  also  be  treated 
with  a  special  care,  and  the  transverse  arch  across  the  nave 
or  aisle.  In  the  diagram  Fig.  103,  let  it  be  assumed  that 
one  of  these  transverse  arches  is  built  above  AB  and  an- 


FlG.  103. 


i88 


WESTERN  EUROPE,  1150  TO    1300  A.D. 


[Chap.  V 


other  above  CD,  and  also  that  a  wall  arch  is  built  above  A  C, 
and  another  above  BD.  What,  now,  could  be  more  natural 
than  to  build  also  stout  arches  above  the  two  diagonals  ? 
Having  to  cut  and  fit  carefully  the  stone  for  the  four  arches 
AB  and  CD,  AC  and  BD,  the  builder  would  be  in  the 
way  of  cutting   stones   for   the   groins,  which    then   form 

the  diagonal  arches  AD 
and  BC 

This  he  would  find 
especially  desirable  as 
a  method  of  proceeding 
in  the  case  of  a  vault 
on  a  curved  plan,  as 
where  the  aisle  turns 
around  an  apse.  Fig- 
ure 104  shows  such  a 
vault;  and  the  stones 
which  form  the  groin 
are  seen  to  be  larger 
than  the  others  and 
carefully  cut.  More- 
over, and  this  is  a  very 
important  point,  it  is 
very  easy  to  erect  a  wooden  centring  upon  which  to  lay  the 
stones  of  an  arch  one  foot  or  twenty  inches  wide,  whereas 
the  centring  for  a  groined  vault  or  a  considerable  part  of  it 
is  difficult  to  construct,  and  requires  a  great  deal  of  excel- 
lent wood  and  a  great  deal  of  skill  to  support  it  from  below 
in  the  perfect  and  unbroken  cur\^ature  necessary  to  guide 
the  masons  and  support  the  masonry  aright.    Suppose,  then, 


Fig.  104. 


Sec.  I] 


ORIGIN   OF   GOTHIC:    FRANCE 


189 


that  all  these  arches,  those  which  divide  the  square  of 
vaulting  diagonally  as  well  as  those  which  enclose  it,  are 
all  built.  There  will  result  a  vault  of  which  the  plan  will 
be  as  in  Fig.  105, 
and  it  is  evident  that 
there  will  be  four 
open  triangles,  A  OB 
etc.  (Fig.  105),  each 
of  which  is  of  mod- 
erate extent.  Obvi- 
ously, it  is  not  so 
hard  to  put  up  a 
centrinsf   for   one   of 

*-',  Fig.  105. 

these    triangles,   now 

that  there  are  solid  stone  arches  on  every  side  of  it. 
Moreover,  the  lower  part  of  each  triangle,  where  the  shell 
of  the  vault  is  almost  like  a  wall,  requires  no  centre, 
as  will  be  seen  below.     The  wooden  centring  may  even 

be  secured  to  the  stone 
arches  when  built  and 
made  safe  without  any 
supports  from  below.  The 
surface  of  the  vault  filling 
the  triangular  space  A  OB 
or  BOD,  or  the  like,  may 
indeed  be  very  much  dis- 
torted in  appearance  ;  it  is 
very  difficult  to  represent  it  by  a  drawing  (see  Fig.  106), 
and  very  difficult  to  form  a  clear  conception  of  it  with- 
out  a   model;    but   to   the   builders   it   was   one   of   the 


Fig.  106. 


igo  WESTERN   EUROPE,  1150  TO   1300  A.D.  [Chap.  V 

simplest  of  problems.  Look  again  at  Fig.  103,  the  plan 
of  the  vaulting  square  ;  if  the  arch  AD  is  a  semicircle  and 
the  arch  AB  also  a  semicircle,  it  is  evident  that  the  crown 
of  AD  at  O  will  rise  high  above  the  crown  of  AB.  There- 
fore the  four  triangles  were  of  course  seen  by  the  masons, 
as  they  stood  looking  at  the  completed  skeleton  of  six 
arches  (see  Fig.  106),  as  rising  toward  their  common 
centre  (9  in  a  sort  of  cupola.  That  was  the  general  form 
which  their  completed  vault  was  to  take ;  and  this  fact  was 
easy  for  them  to  see ;  but  they  had  also  to  lay  the  stones 
in  each  of  the  four  triangles,  ^  6^-5  etc.,  so  that  each  triangle 
would  be  a  little  vault  by  itself.  In  Figs.  105  and  106  CA 
is  a  wall  arch,  CD  a  transverse  arch,  CO  half  of  one  of  the 
diagonal  arches.  Now,  each  one  of  these  triangles,  AOC 
etc.,  is  to  be  filled  with  mason-work  of  small  stones. 
Where  this  mason-work  begins,  at  the  bottom,  just  above 
the  capital  of  the  pillar  or  shaft  which  supports  it,  it 
will  be  carried  up  almost  vertical ;  a  wall  which  can 
scarcely  be  seen  to  curve  inward.  It  needs  no  centring 
for  the  first  ten  or  twelve  courses  of  stone ;  merely  a  piece 
of  board  with  one  edge  cut  to  the  right  curve  to  guide  the 
masons.  The  centring  will  be  needed  when  the  triangle 
opens  wider  and  the  courses  of  stone  grow  longer,  while  at 
the  same  time  the  stones  are  supported  less  and  less  by  the 
courses  already  laid,  and  hang  more  and  more  over  empty 
space.  It  is  evident  that  each  one  of  these  courses  of 
small  stones  must  itself  be  arched  up,  otherwise,  when  the 
centring  was  removed,  it  would  fall.  Every  separate 
course  is  one  member  of  a  vault;  every  two  or  three 
adjacent  courses  form  by  themselves   a  vault  capable   of 


Sec.  I] 


ORIGIN   OF  GOTHIC:    FRANCE 


191 


supporting  itself,  bearing  at  each  end  upon  the  stone 
arches  previously  built  (see  Fig.  107,  in  which  is  seen  the 
diagonal  arch,  with  parts  of  the  masonry  of  two  adjoin- 
ing triangles).  This  is  the  system  of  vaulting  adopted  about 
the  middle  of  the  twelfth  century  and  already  erected  in  a 
few  of  the  churches  which  we  still  call  Romanesque.  It  is 
characteristic  of  Gothic  vaulting  of  all  epochs  and  in  all 
countries,  except    at   the  time  of    gradual    abandonment 


Fig.  107. 


The  shell  is  sometimes  built  upon  the  back  of  the  rib 
and  sometimes  upon  skewbacks  especially  cut  to  receive 
it  (see  Fig.  107). 

The  fact  that  the  crown  of  the  two  diagonal  arches  was 
so  very  high  above  the  crowns  of  the  wall  arches  and  the 
transverse  arches  must  have  troubled  the  builders  greatly ; 
not  because  producing  complicated  or  difficult  construc- 
tion, but  because  taking  up  so  much  room,  and  causing 
the  timber  framing  of   the  outer  roof   to  be  set  so  high, 


192  WESTERN  EUROPE,  1150  TO   1300  A.D.  [Chap.  V 

with  walls  necessarily  carried  up  to  support  it.  We  have 
seen  in  the  last  chapter  how  they  sometimes  raised  the 
crown  of  one  of  the  smaller  arches  by  stilting  the  whole 
arch.  This  was  so  unsatisfactory,  however,  that  the 
builders  of  the  small  kingdom  of  France,  the  "  Royal 
Domain  "  of  Paris,  and  its  neighbouring  provinces,  began 
about  1 1 50  to  use  the  pointed  arch.^  This  was  a  form  of 
arch  which  the  crusaders  had  seen  in  the  East,  which  had 
been  introduced  into  the  vaulting  of  S.  Front  of  Perigueux, 
as  early  as  the  middle  of  the  eleventh  century,  and  which 
the  builders  themselves  must  have  been  familiar  with  as 
an  ornamental  feature  used  indifferently  with  round  arches 
in  small  arcades,  and  the  like  (see  the  tower  of  Vendome, 
Fig.  99).  With  the  pointed  arch  used  for  the  wall  arches, 
AC,  BD,  Fig.  106,  and  for  the  transverse  arches  AB, 
CD,  it  was  possible  to  bring  the  crowns  of  all  six  arches 
to   a   level.     The   builders  were  not   always   desirous   to 

^  The  question,  what  building  or  buildings  first  show  the  true  Gothic  vault- 
ing, cannot  be  considered  here,  as  it  would  take  many  pages  to  treat  it  properly. 
The  reader  is  referred  to  Viollet-le-Duc,  "  Dictionnaire  Raisonnd  de  I'Architec- 
ture  Fran9aise,"  s.v.  Architecture,  Constrtiction,  Voute,  Porche,  Chapelle;  to 
the  reviews  and  criticisms  on  this  work  by  Anthyme  Saint-Paul,  and  to  a  paper, 
by  that  author  in  the  Bulletin  Monumental,  1875;  to  Louis  Gonse,  ''L'Art 
Gothique"  (Paris,  1894)  ;  to  the  works  of  Eugene  Lef^vre-Pontalis ;  and  to  C 
H.  Moore,  "  Gothic  Architecture."  The  "  Handbuch  der  Architektur,"  published 
at  Darmstadt,  may  be  expected  to  treat  this  and  similar  questions  thoroughly  in 
the  volume,  not  yet  published,  on  mediaeval  church  architecture.  Adamy,  "  Archi- 
tektonik,"  and  Schnaase,  "  Geschichte  der  Bildenden  Kunste,"  treat  the  origin 
of  Gothic  architecture  more  briefly.  The  most  elaborate  treatise  on  northern 
Romanesque  styles,  without  a  knowledge  of  which  the  Gothic  style  cannot  be 
rightly  understood,  is  M.  Ruprich-Robert's  "  L'Architecture  Normande."  Of 
small  and  popular  books,  M.  Corroyer's  two  volumes,  "L'Architecture  Romane" 
and  "L'Architecture  Gothique,"  and  M.  Lechevallier-Chevignard's  "Les  Styles 
Fran^ais  "  may  be  read. 


Sec.  I] 


ORIGIN   OF   GOTHIC:    FRANCE 


193 


Fig.  108. 


have  the  crowns  come  exactly  to  a  level;  they  preferred 
a  slightly  concave  shape  to  their  vault,  and  Fig.  106  shows 
a  more  common  form  than  one  which  would  bring  the 
crowns  of  the  four 
arches  AB,  AC,  etc., 
as  high  as  the  meet- 
ing of  the  diagonal 
ribs.  Figure  108 
shows  still  a  third 
form  according  to 
which  the  triangles  of 
the  vaulting  were  sub- 
divided by  ribs  con- 
necting the  crowns  of 
the  different  large  arches.  Viollet-le-Duc  has  pointed 
out  that  this  last  system  was  occasioned  not  so  much  by 

a  desire  to  decrease 
the  size  of  the  tri- 
angles, as  by  a  fixed 
habit  of  laying  the 
courses  of  stone  in 
the  filling  of  the  vault, 
as  in  Fig.  109,  so  that 
the  extra  rib  at  the 
top  of  the  vault  was 
necessary  to  receive 
Fig.  109.  the  interlacing  ends  of 

these  courses  of  stone.  He  points  out  that  this  system 
of  laying  the  courses  is  evidently  a  reminiscence  of 
cupola   construction.     The   other  system,    that  in    which 


194 


WESTERN  EUROPE,  1150  TO    1300  A.D. 


[Chap.  V 


Fig.  1 10. 


the  courses  of  stone  are  laid  as  in  Fig.  107,  above,  and  as 
shown  in  Fig.  no,  takes  its  origin,  as  he  points  out,  from 

reminiscences  of  Ro- 
man groined  vault- 
ing. This  latter  is 
assuredly  the  system 
most  characteristic 
of  Gothic  building 
proper;  but  both  are 
used,  and  in  the 
work  of  later  times 
the  builders  of  very 
complicated  vaults 
employed  the  two 
systems  indiscrimi- 
nately. 

Another  plan  of 
vaulting  is  that  called 
by  English  writers 
the  sexpartite  vault. 
This  may  indeed 
have  been  the  earliest 
of  all  forms  of  Gothic 
vaulting  proper;  for 
it  was  approached  in 
the  days  of  Roman- 
esque experiments  in 
vaulting.  When,  as 
in  Fig.  83,  the  aisles  had  been  vaulted  in  squares,  and 
the  builders  were  puzzled  how  to  vault  the  corresponding 


Fig.  III. 


Sec.  I] 


ORIGIN   OF   GOTHIC:    FRANCE 


195 


parallelograms  of  the  nave,  nearly  twice  as  long  in  the 
width  of  the  nave  as  in  the  distance  lengthwise  from  pillar 
to  pillar,  one  plan  which  suggested  itself  was  this  of  the 
sexpartite  vault.  On  AD  and  BC  (Fig.  1 11)  are  the  diago- 
nal arches,  each  supposed  to  be  a  semicircle,  as  in  the  cases 
above  cited.  On  AB  and  CD  are  pointed  transverse  arches, 
their  crowns  reaching  nearly,  but  not  quite,  to  the  height  of 


Fig.  112, 


the  meeting-place,  (9,  of  the  diagonals.  Finally,  on  EF 
another  transverse  arch  is  built,  more  sharply  pointed 
than  AB  and  CD,  and  meeting  the  diagonal  arches  in  O. 
Figure  1 1 2  shows  this  arrangement  of  the  arches  of  con- 
struction, or  ribs.  There  are  four  smaller  and  two  larger 
triangles  to  be  filled  with  vaulting.  The  small  triangles 
seem  of  a  very  fantastic  form,  warped  and  distorted,  but 
they  were  not  hard  to  vault  in  actual  practice. 


196 


WESTERN   EUROPE,  1150  TO    1300  A.D. 


[Chap.  V 


There  is  still  another  way  in  which  the  use  of  the 
pointed  arch  was  found  to  be  the  only  solution  of  a 
difficulty.  We  have  seen  in  the  two  previous  chapters 
that  the  Romanesque  builders  were  fond  of  putting  an 
aisle  outside  of  and  surrounding  a  semicircular  apse. 
Let  Fig.  113  be  the  plan  of  part  of  such  an  aisle ;  B 
and  D  are  columns  separating  this  aisle  from  the  apse, 

A  and  C  are  half-columns, 
engaged  columns,  or  corbels 
built  into  the  outer  wall  of 
the  aisle.  Now  if  BC  and 
AD  are  diagonal  arches,  the 
place  where  they  meet  and 
cross  one  another  is  no  longer 
the  crown  of  either,  supposing 
them  to  be  semicircular  arches 
as  before,  but  a  point  far  below 
the  crown.  A  very  awkward 
looking  vault  results  from  this. 
It  is  perhaps  easier  and  cer- 
tainly better  to  keep  the 
point  of  meeting  at  the  crown, 
that  is  to  say,  to  keep  the  point  of  meeting  higher  than 
any  other  part  of  the  skeleton  of  ribs,  but  this  could 
only  be  brought  about  by  entirely  giving  up  the  semicir- 
cular arches.  In  Fig.  1 1 3  the  adjoining  bay  or  unit  of 
vaulting  (now  no  longer  a  square)  is  supposed  to  be 
vaulted  by  means  of  the  pointed  arches  erected  over 
AB,  CD\  AC,  and  BD\  and  the  four  half-arches  Aa, 
BG,  C'Cy,  D'Cy.     This  use  of   half-arches   is,  of   course. 


Fig.  113. 


Sec.  I]  ORIGIN  OF   GOTHIC:    FRANCE  I97 

only  practicable  where  the  pointed  arch  is  fully  recog- 
nized as  the  chief  member  of  the  construction.  The 
pointed  arch  consists  of  two  curved  ribs  or  rafters  meet- 
ing at  a  point;  let  now  the  builders  grow  accustomed  to 
the  thought  of  the  pointed  arch  as  not  one  single  mem- 
ber but  a  combination  of  two  members,  and  it  is  easy 
to  take  the  next  step  and  use  the  half-arches  freely. 
Not  two  half-arches  only,  but  three  on  occasion,  or  any 
odd  number,  as  well  as  a  series  of  pairs,  may  meet  at  a 
common  point,  and,  this  principle  once  established,  the 
building  of  a  vault  over  any  horizontal  surface,  no  mat- 
ter how  irregular  in  shape, 
becomes  easy.^ 

This,  then,  is  Gothic  vault- 
ing, as  originating  in  the 
Royal  Domain  of  France, — 
taken  up  at  once  in  the  prov-  fig.  114. 

inces  dependent  on  the  French  crown,  such  as  Burgundy, 
Normandy,  and  French  Flanders,  and  adopted  almost  as 
promptly  in  the  countries  south  of  the  Loire  and  north  of 
the  Somme.  The  distinctions  between  the  practice  of  one 
province  and  another  are  too  minute  and  too  uncertain  as 
to  their  geographical  limitations  to  be  insisted  on,  here. 
This  Gothic  vaulting  is  made  up  of  three  essential  parts : 
first,  the  skeleton  or  cage  of  strong  arches  described  above, 
which  arches  we  call  generally  ribs  ;  second,  the  shell  made 

^  The  pointed  arch  considered  as  made  up  of  two  half-arches  will,  of  course, 
have  no  keystone:  it  will  be  built  as  at  ^,  not  as  at  B  (Fig.  114).  This  is  a 
feature  of  pure  Gothic  building,  and  the  appearance  of  a  keystone  means  mis- 
understanding of  the  style. 


198 


WESTERN   EUROPE,   1150  TO    1300   A.D. 


[Chap.  V 


of  smaller  stones  cut  like  voussoirs,  every  stone  doing  its 
part  in  an  arch-construction,  the  shell  of  each  compart- 
ment having  convexity  enough  and  radiation  of  joints  suffi- 
cient to  enable  it  to  carry  its  own  weight  and  that  of  the 
filling  behind ;  and  third,  the  filling,  rough  stone-and-mortar 
masonry,  put  in  anyhow  to  prevent  the  arched  ribs  from 
rising  at  the  haunches  and  so  throwing  out  the  whole  sys- 
tem of  vaulting.  Such  a  vault  exerts  a  very  powerful  press- 
ure at  four  points:  A,B,  C,  D,  in  Figs.  103,  iii,  and  113, 
above-     In   the  case  of   a  church  having  a  nave  but  no 

aisles,  like  the  Sainte 
Chapelle  of  Paris, 
there  is  no  difficulty : 
buttresses  were  built 
as  shown  in  Fig.  1 1 5 
at  ^,  C,  B,  D,  etc.,  as 
deep  and  as  heavy 
as  necessary.  If, 
however,  the  church 
had  aisles,  while  the  vaulting  of  these  aisles  was  easy 
to  keep  in  its  place  by  means  of  ordinary  buttresses, 
how  should  the  vaulting  of  the  nave  be  held  up  ?  In 
Fig.  1 1 6  the  great  vault  of  the  nave  will  exercise  a  pow- 
erful thrust  at  A^  and,  in  fact,  would  not  stand  a  month. 
It  is  true  that  a  very  deep  buttress-wall  might  be  built,  but 
this  would  load  the  arch  MN  across  the  aisle,  in  such  a 
way  as  to  increase  the  thrust  of  the  aisle  vault  inward,  as 
at  B,  so  much  as  to  endanger  the  safety  of  the  high, 
slender  pier  between  the  nave  and  the  aisle.  This  pier  is 
kept  in  place  by  the  dead  weight  coming  upon  it  verti- 


FiG.  115. 


Sec.  I] 


ORIGIN   OF  GOTHIC:    FRANCE 


199 


cally,  the  weight  of  the  vaults  and  the  roofing  of  both  nave 
and  aisle,  but  the  effect  of  this  weight  is  limited.  We 
may  do  this,  however ;  we  may  pierce  the  buttress-wall  at 
/%  making,  if  we  choose,  a  very  large  opening ;  but  then 
we  must  continue  the  buttress-wall  farther  out  from  the 
church ;  for,  after  all,  we  need  a  certain  amount  of  mere 
passive  resistance,  of  dead 
weight,  to  take  up  all 
these  thrusts.  Building 
our  buttress  in  this  way, 
therefore,  we  reach  the 
conclusion  shown  in  Fig. 
117,  in  which  is  shown 
a  system  of  two  aisles  on 
each  side  of  the  nave,  and 
a  very  high  and  heavy 
buttress-wall  with  arch- 
ways pierced  in  it  and 
taking  up  the  thrust  of 
the  clear-story  vault,  the 
vault  of  the  gallery  over 
the  inner  aisle,  and  that 
of  the  outer  aisle.  With 
this  system  the  vaults  of  aisles  and  nave  are  perfectly 
well  stayed  up,  and  the  supports  between  aisles  and 
nave  are  left  to  the  single  task  of  supporting  vertical 
pressure,  and  therefore  may  be  very  slight.  The  half- 
arches  shown  in  Fig.  1 1 7  taken  with  the  pieces  of  wall 
upon  them  are  called  flying  buttresses.  In  Fig.  127,  and 
especially  in  Plates  II.  and  III.  the  flying  buttress  is  seen  in 


Fig.  116. 


I  I  I  I  1  I 


t  I   I   I  I  I  I  I  ,1 


Fig.  117.      Reims,   France :    S.   Remy.      Section  across  choir  with  buttress-system   of 

twelfth  centurv. 


Sec.  I]  ORIGIN  OF  GOTHIC:    FRANCE  20I 

its  more  developed  form.  This  new  feature  is  an  essential 
part  of  Gothic  construction ;  it  appears  first  as  early  as 
II 60,  but  is  hardly  common  until  a  time  twenty  years 
later. 

The  structure  then  is  completed  by  the  use  of  flying 
buttresses,  and  the  Gothic  system  may  be  described  as 
follows:  All  inner  roofs  or  ceilings  to  be  of  masonry 
vaulting,  composed  of  arched  ribs  which  are  built  first 
and  which  carry  the  weight  and  take  the  thrust  of  the 
shells  of  vaulting  between  them ;  these  ribs  meeting  in 
groups  generally  of  three  or  five  upon  points  which  are 
supported  from  below  by  slender  pillars;  all  sideway 
thrusts  taken  up  by  the  contrary  action  of  other  thrusts 
plus  the  necessary  friction  and  weight  of  masonry,  except 
that  at  the  outer  perimeter  of  the  building  a  buttress  is  set 
up  outside,  to  resist  by  its  dead  weight  the  thrust  of  the 
outermost  group  of  ribs ;  where  this  buttress  would  obstruct 
the  free  space  of  another  enclosure  (as  where  the  buttress 
of  a  nave  arch  would  obstruct  an  aisle.  Fig.  116)  the 
necessary  buttress  moved  away,  and  set  up  outside  of  the 
second  enclosure,  and  the  thrust  carried  across  this  enclosed 
space  overhead  by  means  of  a  flying  buttress.  An  attempt 
has  been  made  to  express  all  this  epigrammatically  in  the 
phrase  "  a  roof  of  stone  with  walls  of  glass,"  and  this  is 
so  far  just  that  it  is  evident  that  there  are  no  longer  any 
walls  in  the  sense  of  weight-carrying  structures.  The 
walls  of  a  true  Gothic  building  are  merely  screens  against 
the  weather  and  against  intrusion.  They  may  be,  there- 
fore, partly  or  wholly  window  sash,  or  they  may  be  re- 
placed, as  in  the  interior  of  a  church,  between  choir  and 


202  WESTERN    EUROPE,    1150  TO    1300  A.D.  [Chap.  V 

choir-aisles,  by  low  screens  of  carved  stone,  or  wrought 
iron  gratings,  or  tombs,  or  the  mere  backs  of  stalls  and 
altar  screens. 

The  mere  supporting  of  a  masonry  ceiling  on  slender 
and  isolated  uprights  was  not  new ;  the  immense  cisterns 
of  Constantinople,  built  in  the  early  days  of  Byzantine  archi- 
tecture, were  of  this  type  of  structure.  Such  a  cistern  was 
like  such  a  Gothic  interior  as  we  shall  have  to  describe  in  the 
next  chapter, except  in  two  respects:  first,  it  had  not  the  flex- 
ible rib- vault;  second,  the  abutments  which  resist  the  thrust 
of  its  outermost  vaults  were  not  put  outside  of  its  enclosure 
with  deliberate  purpose,  receiving  architectural  treatment. 

One  result  of  the  Gothic  structure  was  great  lightness 
and  slenderness  of  interior  architecture.  Figure  ii8  shows 
one  bay  of  the  rounded  south  transept  of  Soissons  Cathe- 
dral. The  slender  vaulting  shafts  which  rise  from  the 
floor  indicate  the  main  pillars  supporting  the  vaulted  ceil- 
ing, of  which  indeed  the  vaulting  shafts  form  part;  but 
these  piers  are  only  about  three  feet  square  in  plan,  and 
the  other  columns  are  slender  rods.  There  is  a  sharp 
contrast  between  the  architectural  effect  which  is  sought 
and  obtained  here,  and  that  of  a  great  Roman  structure, 
such  as  is  shown  in  Fig.  29  or  30.  In  the  one  case  great 
massiveness,  and,  if  interior  space  and  height,  then  space 
and  height  justified,  so  to  speak,  and  explained  by  im- 
measurable weight  and  strength  of  the  solid  parts ;  in  the 
other  case,  interior  space  obtained  in  an  unexpected  and 
almost  unexplained  way,  by  means  of  solid  parts  which 
seem  insufhcient  on  an  imperfect  examination,  and  yet 
are  seen  to  be  doing  their  work. 


Fig.  1 1 8.     Soissons,  France:    Cathedral.      Detail  of  the 
transeot,  southern  arm.     Built  iabout  I180A.D. 


204 


WESTERN   EUROPE,    1150   TO    1300  A.D. 


[Chap.  V 


Another  result  of  the  Gothic  structure  is  height,  great 
in  proportion  to  the  horizontal  space.  This  comparative 
height  is  a  necessary  result  of  the  plan  and  arrangement 
of  the  building,  and  the  means  adopted  of  lighting  a  large 


interior  which 
ing  on  slender 
the  half-sec- 
will  be  about 
roof.      Let  B 


is  covered  by  a  stone    roof   rest- 
supports.     In   Fig.  119  let  A  be 
tion  of  a  small  early  basilica:    it 
40  feet  high  to  the  ridge  of  the 
be  the  half-section  of  a  Gothic 
church      on     the 
same  ground  plan. 
As      glass      was 
abundant  and  the 
decoration    of    it 
well     understood, 
neither  of   which 
was  at  all  the  case 
when  the  basilica 
was     built,    more 
window      surface 
Fig.  119.  was     Called     for; 

and  as  the  windows  were  at  once  made  highly  orna- 
mental, and  partly  obscured  as  to  the  passage  of  light 
by  the  richness  of  the  glass  employed,  the  windows 
tended  to  grow  larger  still.  The  aisle  12  feet  wide 
would  tend  to  be  at  least  16  feet  high  to  the  springing 
of  the  vaults;  for  this  brings  the  capitals  of  the  nave 
columns  down  to  a  height  of  13  feet  above  the  floor, 
measured  to  their  neck-mouldings :  quite  low  enough ! 
The  result  is  a  height  to  the  crown  of  the  nave  vault  of  61 


Sec.  I]  ORIGIN  OF  GOTHIC:    FRANCE  205 

feet,  and  a  height  to  the  ridge  of  the  roof  of  82  feet. 
This,  however,  is  with  a  nave  only  24  feet  wide:  enlarge 
the  nave  to  50  feet  wide,  and  we  have  a  proportion, 
24:  50: :  61 :  127,  and  24:  50: :  82  :  171  feet.  Now  the  di- 
mensions 50  feet  in  width  of  nave,  127  feet  to  crown  of 
vault,  and  171  feet  of  total  height  to  ridge  are  very  nearly 
those  of  the  cathedrals  of  the  thirteenth  century,  and  it 
seems  unnecessary  to  seek  for  their  great  height  in  at- 
tributing to  their  builders  a  soaring  or  aspiring  temper. 
They  built,  like  other  men,  to  produce  what  they  needed, 
with  some  reference,  as  well,  to  the  buildings  of  their 
neighbours,  and  with  some  desire  to  surpass  them. 

The  new  system,  once  well  established,  about  11 80, 
must  have  been  seen  at  once  to  be  capable  of  a  lightness 
and  spaciousness  of  interior  effect  never  before  attained. 
To  the  builders  of  the  time  a  church  existed  for  its  inte- 
rior primarily;  the  doors  being  always  open,  the  popula- 
tion —  going  to  it  several  times  a  day  for  mass,  for 
confession,  to  listen  to  sermons,  stopping  within  it  to  talk, 
making  appointments  to  meet  in  its  corners,  treating  it 
as  the  common  exchange  or  in-door  forum  and  basilica 
in  one  —  would  be  apt  to  look  upon  any  newly  discovered 
means  of  making  this  interior  twice  as  large  with  the  same 
amount  of  solid  material  as  a  sensible  gain  to  the  whole 
community.  Moreover,  the  great  churches  of  the  bishops, 
one  such  in  each  diocese,  the  cathedrals,  as  we  call  them, 
were  in  a  very  special  way  the  objects  of  great  interest. 
The  bishops  themselves  looked  upon  them  as  their  own 
peculiar  domain,  a  domain  which  was  to  be  made  more 
splendid    and   more    useful    than    the    somewhat   similar 


206 


WESTERN   EUROPE,    1150  TO    1300   A.D. 


[Chap.  V 


Structures  of  the  monastic  orders.  Each  bishop  dis- 
puted in  a  sense  his  own  lordship  over  his  diocese  with 
the  lord  of  the  manor,  the  feudal  seigneur;  and,  as  the 
lord's  castle  stood  at  a  visible  height  above  the  town,  the 
cathedral  must  needs  rise  high  within  the  town  walls, 
and,  while  it  gave  what  the  castle  could  never  give,  a  place 
of  resort  open  to  all  the  people,  it  must  needs  attain  to 


Fig.  120.     Noyon,  France:  Cathedral.     Chiefly  of  11 80  to  1200  a.d. 

to  I  inch. 


Plan  84  feet 


an  equal  or  superior  external  importance.  It  is  to  the 
cathedral  churches,  then,  that  we  are  to  look  for  the  ex- 
tended and  perfected  Gothic  structure.  Figure  1 20  shows 
the  plan  of  the  cathedral  of  Noyon,  chosen  as  one  of  the 
earliest  of  which  the  general  disposition  has  remained 
unchanged;  and  also  as  perhaps  the  smallest  of  all  the 
highly  developed  churches.  It  was  all  finished  before  the 
year  1 200,  except  the  west  front  and  except  as  mentioned  in 
the  next  paragraph.     The  choir  and  ring  of  chapels  around 


Sec.  I]  ORIGIN   OF   GOTHIC :    FRANCE  20/ 

it  are  of  matured  Gothic  style,  although  considered  the 
earliest  built  of  all  parts  of  the  church.  On  the  other 
hand,  the  two  arms  of  the  transept  are  still  apsidal  in  form, 
as  is  also  the  southern  arm  of  the  transept  of  the  cathedral 
at  Soissons  in  the  same  part  of  France  (see  Fig.  ii8);  and 
this  rounding  of  the  extremity  seems  very  early;  purely 
Romanesque  in  character.  In  each  case  it  was  undoubt- 
edly the  foundations  of  a  previously  existing  early  Roman- 
esque church  which  were  built  upon. 

Figure  121  shows  the  interior  of  the  church  of  Notre 
Dame,  the  cathedral  of  Noyon.  It  will  be  observed  that 
the  pillars  of  the  nave  are  alternately  heavy  and  slight,  this 
arrangement  pointing  to  an  original  vaulting  according  to 
the  sexpartite  system,  as  in  Figs,  iii  and  112.  Further- 
more, it  will  be  noticed  that  the  existing  vaults  are  not  at 
all  of  that  character,  but  are  built  according  to  the  simpler 
and  more  rational  plan  as  shown  in  Figs.  105,  106,  and 
others,  which  explain  the  same  system.  There  can  be 
little  doubt  that  the  original  vaulting  was  sexpartite,  and 
that  the  present  vaults  are  of  later  date  than  the  rest  of 
the  church,  which  has  suffered  frequently  from  fires  in 
the  wooden  roofs. 

Gothic  architecture,  therefore,  was  established  before 
the  close  of  the  twelfth  century  as  a  complete  style,  capa- 
ble of  anything.  It  is  customary  to  speak  of  it  as  the 
style  of  the  thirteenth  century,  however,  because  the 
greater  buildings  of  the  early  Gothic  style  were  still 
rising,  all  through  the  half-century,  1 200-1 250.  Notre 
Dame  of  Paris  was  finished  before  1250  as  we  now  see  it, 
except  the  chapels  and  some  other  parts  of  the  exterior. 


Fig.  121.     Noyon,  France  :  Cathedral.     Nave  (see  FiG.  120). 


Sec.  I]  ORIGIN   OF   GOTHIC:    FRANCE  209 

Notre  Dame  of  Chartres  must  have  been  complete  by 
1240;  the  north  tower  of  course  is  later  and  the  porches  of 
the  west  front  much  earlier,  and  still  Romanesque  in  type. 
S.  Etienne  (S.  Stephen)  of  Bourges,  a  marvellous  church, 
was  not  more  than  ten  years  behind  the  others.  Notre 
Dame  of  Amiens  was  checked  by  want  of  funds,  and  was 
long  in  finishing,  but  its  main  lines  were  settled  before 
1 240 ;  moreover,  every  part  of  it  as  it  now  stands  was  built 
before  the  year  1300.  Notre  Dame  of  Reims  offers  a 
much  larger  proportion  of  late  work,  but  even  here  the 
church  is  a  church  of  1 220-1 240,  with  later  enrichments. 
S.  Pierre  of  Beauvais  is  of  the  same  epoch ;  the  choir  and 
transept  only  having  been  completed.  These  six  are  the 
giant  cathedrals  of  France,  and  there  is  only  one  building 
worthy  to  be  compared  with  them  —  S.  Peter  of  Cologne, 
which,  however  inferior  in  beauty  of  sculpture  and  fresh- 
ness of  style  in  its  details,  reworked  and  modernized  as 
they  are,  is  a  perfect  cathedral  of  1 220-1 250  as  to  plan  and 
general  conception.  Two  other  first-class  cathedrals  were 
begun,  SS.  Pierre  and  Paul  of  Troyes  and  S.  Juste  of 
Narbonne,  but  only  the  choir  of  each  was  finished  in  the 
thirteenth  century.  Of  the  same  epoch  are  the  unequalled 
choir  and  chapels  of  S.  Julian  of  Le  Mans,  the  plan  and 
general  system  of  Notre  Dame  of  Rouen,  the  whole  of 
Notre  Dame  of  Laon,  almost  a  cathedral  of  the  first  class, 
and  unsurpassed  in  artistic  charm,  the  general  plan  and 
the  whole  choir  of  S.  Gatien  of  Tours,  and  the  whole  or 
nearly  the  whole  of  Notre  Dame  of  Soissons,  Notre  Dame 
of  Senlis,  S.  Etienne  of  Sens,  and  Notre  Dame  of  Cou- 
tances.     All  of  these  are  cathedral  churches,  except  Sen- 


210  WESTERN   EUROPE,    1150  TO    1300  A.D.  [Chap.  V 

lis,  which  has  lost  that  rank;  and  it  is  to  be  noticed 
how,  in  accordance  with  the  strong  episcopal  and  dio- 
cesan feeling  alluded  to  above  (p.  205),  these  cathedrals 
were  begun  wholly  anew  in  the  new  style,  all  the 
Romanesque  structure  which  had  preceded  each  being 
removed. 

No  such  thorough  rebuilding  was  undertaken  in  the 
case  of  the  parish  churches.  In  some  parishes  the  Ro- 
manesque church  was  left  standing,  and  remains  to  this 
day,  or  has  been  destroyed  in  the  present  century.  In 
others  the  Romanesque  church  was  not  replaced  by  a 
Gothic  building  until  the  fifteenth  century.  From  these 
and  other  reasons  the  French  parish  church  of  the  thir- 
teenth century  is  not  so  familiar  a  type  as  the  French 
cathedral ;  but  it  is  none  the  less  important.  For  the 
guidance  of  modern  architects  who  build  churches  in 
imitation  of  the  early  Gothic  style,  the  parish  churches 
are  even  more  often  valuable  than  the  great  cathedrals, 
because  they  are  so  diverse  in  plan  and  distribution,  fre- 
quently being  without  aisles  or  without  transepts,  not 
by  failure  of  resources,  but  by  the  original  plan ;  having 
sometimes  central  towers,  sometimes  bell-gables  only, 
sometimes  bell-towers  as  separate  from  the  church  as 
the  Italian  campanile.  Moreover,  they  offer  by  turns 
the  most  tasteful  and  appropriate  use  of  sculpture  in 
limited  amount  and  the  working  out  of  the  Gothic  ideal 
without  sculpture  more  than  here  and  there  a  carved  boss 
or  corbel.  They  are  graceful  in  proportion  beyond  the 
smaller  churches  of  other  lands. 

Together  with  the  parish  churches  must  be  mentioned 


Sec.  I]  ORIGIN   OF  GOTHIC:    FRANCE  211 

the  famous  Sainte  Chapelle^  of  Paris,  which  was  built 
by  Louis  IX.  (Saint  Louis)  during  the  years  1 243-1 247. 
It  consists  of  two  separate  rooms,  an  upper  and  a  lower 
chapel.  The  upper  one  is  an  unbroken  room  about 
thirty-three  feet  wide  by  one  hundred  long,  including  the 
polygonal  east  end,  and  about  sixty  feet  high  to  the 
crown  of  the  vaulting.  The  lower  chapel  is  divided  into 
a  nave  and  very  narrow  aisles ;  this  disposition  being 
partly  caused  by  the  lowness  of  the  room,  about  twenty 
feet  to  the  crown.  Buttresses  of  great  projection,  though 
narrow,  rise  the  whole  height  of  the  exterior  walls  and 
take  up  the  thrust  of  all  the  vaults.  This  structure  then 
in  its  main  design  is  a  lofty  Gothic  church  without  aisles. 
This  masterpiece  of  Gothic  art  shows  us  what  the  style 
would  have  been  if  the  nave-and-aisle  plan,  with  high  clear- 
story, had  not  been  in  use.  Most  churches  built,  not  on 
that  plan,  but  with  a  single  nave  only,  were,  of  course, 
small  and  simple,  blit  the  Sainte  Chapelle  is  of  the  highest 
development  of  perfected  Gothic.  A  comparison  of  this 
building  (see  Fig.  122),^  with  a  great  cathedral-church 
like  Bourges  or  Chartres  shows  how  perfectly  the  earlier 
Gothic  was  suited  to  great  buildings  with  ground-plans 
of  broken  outline,  with  higher  and  less  high  parts,  with 
exterior  and  interior  variety,  change  and  series  of  parts, 

^  The  term  Sainte  Chapelle,  or  Holy  Chapel  in  a  peculiar  sense,  was  used  to 
describe  a  building  containing  and  dedicated  to  relics  of  supreme  importance, 
such  as  those  of  the  Passion  of  Christ.  That  of  Paris  was  built  as  an  addition 
to  the  royal  palace  which  stood  on  the  largest  island  in  the  Seine,  Vlsle  de  la 
Cite,  nearly  where  the  Palais  de  Justice  is  now ;  the  Sainte  Chapelle  marking 
nearly  the  middle  point  of  the  former  group  of  buildings. 

2  Consult  also  Fig.  115. 


Fig.   122.      Paria :  Sainte  Chapelle.     Built  1243  tu  I-247  A.D. 


Sec.  I]  ORIGIN  OF  GOTHIC :   FRANCE  2 1 3 

and  how  much  it  loses  when  applied  to  a  simple  and  regular 
structure  of  no  great  size. 

Civic  buildings  were  built  on  the  same  principles  as 
churches,  as  far  as  they  could  be.  A  small  dwelling- 
house  would  not  have  vaulted  ceilings  nor  very  large 
windows ;  and,  therefore,  all  it  had  of  the  Gothic  style  was 
in  its  detail.  A  large  hall  would  be  vaulted,  with  pillars 
to  carry  the  vaults  in  the  middle  or  in  two  ranks  like 
those  of  a  church,  and  buttresses  to  take  up  the  thrust. 
Instances  will  be  given  of  such  structures.  Where  the 
walls  had  to  be  very  thick  and  solidly  built,  as  in  the 
case  of  the  strong  castles  which  were  built  all  over 
Europe  at  this  epoch,  the  vaulting  would  find  abundant 
support  and  resistance  to  its  thrust  in  the  walls  them- 
selves. Where  the  vaulting  of  a  room  twenty  feet  wide 
is  resisted  by  solid  walls  twenty  feet  thick,  such  vaulting 
is  indeed  perfectly  secure;  but  this  has  very  little  to  do 
with  the  true  Gothic  vaulting  in  which  one  vault  balances 
and  offsets  another,  and  only  the  lightest  possible  but- 
tresses are  used  to  take  up  the  thrust  of  the  outermost 
compartments. 

The  Gothic  style  brought  with  it  a  world  of  varied 
detail,  both  architectural  and  sculpturesque,  the  first  nat- 
urally resulting  from  the  arrangement  and  structure  of 
the  building,  the  other  coming  of  a  development  of  the 
popular  instinct  for  pure  art,  such  as  at  certain  intervals 
of  time  surprises  the  student  of  art  history.  Figure  123 
shows  how  the  tracery  of  the  windows  lends  itself  to  the 
decoration  of  the  structure  both  within  and  without. 
Within  it  shows  dark  as  a  system  of  bars  gracefully  com- 


Fig.  123.     Reims,  France :  Cathedral.     Window  of  choir,  about  1 210  A.D. 


Sec.  I]  ORIGIN  OF  GOTHIC:   FRANCE  21$ 

bined  and  relieved  against  the  light  and  coloured  or  gray 
monotone  ground  afforded  by  the  glass.  From  without 
it  shows  light  on  the  dark  of  the  interior;  and  in  this 
external  aspect  the  tracery  is  combined  with  the  mould- 
ings of  the  arch  forming  the  window  head.  Figure  124 
shows  one  of  the  bays  of  the  Sainte  Chapelle  at  Paris, 
seen  from  without.  It  will  be  noticed  that  the  exterior 
mouldings  of  the  window  arch  are  first  a  bead  between 
two  quirks  A,  then  the  re-entrant  angle  formed  by  the  sur- 
faces of  the  two  stones  AB,  then  a  quirk  and  a  pro- 
longed ogee  moulding  filled  with  leafage.  The  mouldings 
of  the  window-tracery  continue  and  carry  out  the  system 
of  convex  and  concave  surfaces  adopted.  This  matter  of 
window-tracery  will  be  discussed  more  fully  in  Chapter 
VI. ;  and  the  great  rose-windows  of  the  gables  must  be 
left  for  the  same  chapter.  Meantime,  the  curious  way  in 
which  the  window-tracery  affected  the  architecture  of  the 
time  by  serving  as  an  ornament  applied  to  many  parts  of 
the  building,  especially  of  the  exterior,  is  shown  in  Fig. 
125,  one  of  the  gables  of  Notre  Dame  of  Paris. 

The  richest  parts  of  the  great  thirteenth  century 
churches  are  the  doorways  of  the  west  front  and  the  north 
and  south  fronts  of  the  transept.  A  great  cathedral  would 
have  nine  of  these  superb  doorways,  each  one  enriched 
with  elaborate  sculpture  in  high  relief  or  in  the  form  of 
statuary.  This  sculpture  is  arranged  alike  on  the  slop- 
ing surfaces  of  the  impost,  the  receding  concentric 
arches  of  the  door-head,  the  large  triangular  tympanum 
which  fills  the  door-head  and  the  trumeau  or  stout  cen- 
tral upright  which  supports  the  tympanum  and   receives 


vliv.v 

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Fig.  124.     Paris:  Sainte  Chapelle.     Window  (see  Fig.  122). 


Sec.  I] 


ORIGIN   OF  GOTHIC:    FRANCE 


217 


Fig.  125.     Paris:  Cathedral  of  Notre  Dame.     Gable  of  transept  about  1260  A.D. 


the  swing  of  the  heavy  doors.     Such  a  doorway  is  given 
in  Fig.   126. 

The  towers  carrying  spires,  which  in  theory  would  be 
among  the  most  common  features  of  the  Gothic  style,  are 
not  very  common  of  a  date  as  early  as  the  thirteenth 
century.     Those  that  existed  have  often  suffered  from  fire 


Fig.  126.     Paris:  Cathedral  of  Notre  Dame.     North  door  of  west  front,  about  12 10  A.D. 


Sec,  I]  ORIGIN  OF  GOTHIC:   FRANCE  219 

which  has  ruined  their  spires  and  pinnacles.  The  most 
admirable  tower  of  the  beginning  of  the  Gothic  style  is  the 
southern  one  of  the  west  front  of  Chartres,  and  another  of 
great  beauty  and  of  a  few  years  later  is  that  which  occu- 
pies the  same  position  in  the  cathedral  of  Senlis,  a  few 
miles  northeast  of  Paris.  The  design  of  a  thirteenth- 
century  cathedral  included,  however,  many  belfry-towers 
with  spires.  Viollet-le-Duc  has  left  us  a  study  of  what  a 
church  of  the  character  of  Reims  Cathedral  would  have 
been  had  it  been  completed  according  to  the  original  con- 
ception, which  study  is  reproduced  in  Fig.  127. 

As  for  the  sculpture,  it  deals  with  plant  form  and  animal 
form  in  abundance,  in  variety  and  with  great  freedom ;  it 
combines  them  in  the  most  unexpected  and  the  richest 
decoration,  and  it  preserves  at  the  same  time  great  merit 
as  sculpture.  The  human  figure  it  takes  as  one  more  ele- 
ment of  its  design,  and  uses  it  boldly  and  well  as  a  means 
of  ornament ;  moreover,  gesture,  movement,  and  pose  are 
admirably  treated,  and  drapery,  founded  upon  ordinary 
costume,  is  handled  with  great  skill.  A  strong  disposi- 
tion towards  portraiture,  or  at  least  the  using  of  well 
marked  individual  types,  is  evident;  faces  are  full  of  ex- 
pression, and  the  face  is  made  to  conform  well  to  the 
emotion  expressed  by  the  attitude.  Finally  in  the  master- 
pieces of  the  time,  as  in  the  porch-statues  of  Reims  Cathe- 
dral, there  exists  a  true  sculpturesque  achievement  worthy 
to  be  considered  beside  that  of  the  Greeks  of  Pericles' 
time.  As  to  this  matter  of  sculpture  of  the  human  figure 
it  is  to  be  observed  that  two  tendencies  are  at  work  side 
by  side ;  the  figures  are  needed  to  help  the  architecture, 


Fig.  127. 


Sec.  I]  ORIGIN  OF  GOTHIC:   FRANCE  221 

and  they  are  also,  independently  of  all  architectural  sur- 
roundings, the  work  of  a  sculptor  who  is  eager  to  excel. 
The  Greek  of  450  b.c.  was  not  thinking  so  much  of  his 
architecture  when  he  modelled  a  figure ;  it  was  only  when 
he  took  in  hand  a  Caryatid  or  the  like  that  he  was  an 
architectural  sculptor  at  all,  in  the  sense  in  which  we 
must  use  the  term  of  the  thirteenth  century  men.  These 
later  workmen  never  forgot  their  porch,  their  gable,  their 
arcaded  gallery ;  their  sculpture  was  intended  primarily  as 
a  decoration,  and  its  frequently  very  remarkable  sculptur- 
esque quality  came  of  the  practised  hand  and  the  creative 
genius  which  could  design  and  execute  that  which  was 
great  in  itself  and  yet  greater  in  the  combination  of  part 
with  part. 

There  are  few  remains  of  domestic  architecture  of  the 
thirteenth  century,  and  of  the  years  from  11 50  to  1200  there 
is  practically  nothing  left.  An  interesting  house-front  in  the 
town  of  Saint  Gilles  (near  Nimes  in  the  south  of  France) 
is  Romanesque  in  style;  but  we  have  already  seen  how  long 
the  round  arch  style  lingered  in  the  far  south.  This  build- 
ing, moreover,  has  been  restored  in  a  destructive  manner. 
Dwelling-houses  of  the  thirteenth  century  there  are,  and  in 
the  strange  bastides,  built  at  command  during  the  later  years 
of  this  century,  there  are  streets  and  squares  faced  with 
houses  of  uniform  design,  now  much  altered  and  defaced, 
but  still  valuable  for  purposes  of  study.  The  ordinary 
dwelling  of  the  Middle  Ages  is  not  of  a  character  to  control 
or  modify  seriously  the  development  of  architectural  style. 
Small,  simple  in  its  distribution,  far  less  elaborate  in  con- 
struction than  the  smallest  of  the  chapels  ranged  around 


222  WESTERN   EUROPE,    1150  TO    1300  A.D.  [Chap.  V 

the  choir  of  a  large  church,  with  floors  framed  of  wooden 
beams  and  openings  small  and  low,  these  dwelling-houses 
are  of  extreme  interest  to  the  inquirer  into  manners  and  cus- 
toms and  into  the  history  of  the  people,  and  have  a  certain 
charm  to  the  lover  of  archaic  art;  but  the  development 
of  Gothic  art  went  on  without  regarding  them,  and  they 
followed  as  they  could,  adopting  this  and  that  detail  of  the 
church  architecture  in  their  neighbourhood.  The  public 
civic  buildings  of  the  time  are  all  gone,  unless  we  except 
the  Synodal  Hall  of  Sens,  which  having  been  nearly  ruined 
by  alteration  was  restored  by  Viollet-le-Duc  in  authentic 
manner,  and  the  Salle  des  Etats  at  Blois,  which  is  a  very 
simple  and  unpretending  room  with  as  little  architectural 
character  as  could  well  be  given  to  the  composition  with  a 
screen  of  columns  carrying  a  seeming  vault  of  wood-work. 
The  great  hall  of  Montargis  exists  in  the  engraving  of  An- 
drouet  du  Cerceau.  Of  the  Palace  on  the  Island  in  Paris 
we  have  foundations,  vaulted  cellars,  plans,  and  drawings. 
The  halls,  too,  of  certain  strong  castles  like  those  of  Coucy 
and  La  Ferte  Bernard  can  still  be  traced.  All  that  is 
interesting,  however,  in  the  actually  existing  monuments 
of  civil  and  domestic  architecture  is  to  be  found  in  the  de- 
tails of  their  decorative  treatment,  and  none  can  be  cited 
more  important  than  the  front  of  that  strange  house  at 
Reims  which  is  called  from  the  large  seated  figures  which 
fill  the  niches  between  its  upper  windows  the  House  of  the 
Musicians.  There  are  four  large  square-headed  windows, 
with  mullions  and  transoms  in  the  upper  story,  and  five 
niches  with  cusped,  pointed  heads  in  the  piers.  Each  niche 
contains  a  life-size  figure,  of  which  all  but  one  represented 


Sec.  II]  PROVINCES,   N.   AND   S.    OF   FRANCE  223 

originally  musicians  playing  on  different  instruments. 
Each  niche  has  a  hood-moulding  terminating  in  sculptured 
bosses,  and  the  arcaded  cornice  above  is  so  laid  out  that 
one  of  its  pairs  of  arches  springs  from  a  sculptured  corbel 
which  forms  a  key-stone  to  one  of  these  arched  hood- 
mouldings  ;  each  one  of  the  five  figures,  moreover,  rests  its 
feet  upon  a  large  corbel  of  which  a  sculptured  human  fig- 
ure forms  the  principal  ornament.  It  is  of  great  interest 
to  observe  how  the  builders  conceded  the  large  square  win- 
dow to  the  comfort  of  the  inhabitants  but  insisted  upon 
the  pointed  arch  where  the  light  was  not  to  be  obstructed 
by  its  spandrels.  Figure  128  gives  a  restoration  of  one  bay 
of  this  house  by  Viollet-le-Duc  ("  Dictionnaire  de  I'Archi- 
tecture  Fran9aise,"  article  Maison).  The  drawing  of  the 
statuary  is  largely  fanciful  and  the  restoration  of  the 
ground  floor  unauthorized,  although  probable  enough. 

II 

Of  the  lands  not  included  in  the  modern  France,  Flan- 
ders, Hainault,  and  Brabant,  and  the  northern  provinces 
of  Spain,  received  the  new  style  in  the  purest  form.  The 
advance  of  Gothic  architecture  in  Spain  was  slower  than 
in  western  Germany,  and  much  slower  than  in  England, 
but  it  was  peculiar  in  this,  that  it  was  always  along  the 
lines  of  true  Gothic  construction  and  the  design  result- 
ing from  it.  The  old  cathedral  of  Lerida  is  of  the  years 
1203  to  about  1270,  and  it  is  a  building  in  the  transition 
style,  the  vaulting  good  Gothic,  and  the  cloister,  the 
porches,  etc.,  built  with  pointed  arches,  but  the  windows 


Fig.  128.     Reims,  France :  "  House  of  the  Musicians,"  about  1260  A.D.     Restoration  of 

VioUet-le-Duc. 


Sec.  II]  PROVINCES,  N.  AND   S.    OF  FRANCE  225 

and  doorways  generally  round-arched  and  the  smaller  de- 
tails Romanesque.  The  fine  tower  is  of  a  much  later 
date.  At  Burgos  is  to  be  seen,  on  the  other  hand,  an 
instance  of  almost  perfect  early  Gothic,  consistently  used 
in  the  vaulting,  the  larger  details  and  the  sculpture  of  all 
those  parts  of  the  cathedral  and  its  cloisters  and  outbuild- 
ings which  are  not  overlaid  or  replaced  by  much  later  and 
very  florid  work.  What  is  of  the  thirteenth  century  is 
exquisite,  tasteful  and  simple.  The  porch  and  doorway  of 
the  south  transept,  though  not  so  nobly  designed  as  a  fine 
French  porch  of  the  epoch  would  have  been,  is  equal  to 
anything  in  the  beauty  of  the  sculptured  detail.  The 
whole  front  of  this  transept  is  fine,  and  nothing  except  a 
certain  flatness  and  lack  of  relief  in  the  window-tracery 
and  the  arcades  above  it  can  be  cited  to  prove  this  a  work 
of  an  inferior  school.  Even  finer,  because  far  more  stately 
in  general  design,  is  the  west  portal  of  Leon  Cathedral,  a 
work  worthy  to  rank  with  the  western  doorways  of  Bourges. 
It  may  be  that  the  work  at  Leon  was  directed  by  French 
builders  and  sculptors,  but  this  would  in  no  way  particu- 
larize the  work  or  make  it  less  national  than  many  other 
buildings  in  Spain  and  elsewhere.  The  skilled  stone- 
cutters of  the  day  went  from  town  to  town,  as  their  services 
were  called  for,  and  national  boundaries  in  the  thirteenth 
century  were  not  as  marked  as  they  are  now.  A  master- 
workman  from  Bourges,  Tours,  or  Paris  would  be  called 
to  Auch  or  Bordeaux ;  in  one  of  those  towns  he  would  be 
half-way  to  Leon,  and  as  much  out  of  his  native  country 
as  at  Leon. 

The  provinces  of  Flanders  and  Brabant,  which  make  up 


226  WESTERN  EUROPE,   1150  TO   1300  A.D.  [Chap.  V 

the  greater  part  of  what  we  now  call  Belgium,  were  very 
like  the  lands  to  the  south  of  them  in  their  architecture. 
In  some  fine  and  decorative  arts  these  provinces  were  in 
advance  of  Picardy,  Normandy  and  Champagne,  but  not  in 
architecture.  The  lovely  church  of  S.  Martin  at  Ypres,  of 
1 2  20- 1 2  30,  is  but  a  French  church  of  a  few  years  earlier  date, 
and  the  choir  and  lower  parts  of  the  nave  of  S.  Gudule  at 
Brussels  are  French  of  the  Royal  Domain  itself  in  their 
style.  Civic  and  domestic  buildings  are  the  special  glory 
of  a  later  epoch  in  these  northern  lands,  but  of  the  thir- 
teenth century  there  is  only  to  be  named  as  of  great  im- 
portance the  large  cloth-hall  at  Ypres,  and  this  is  greatly 
inferior  to  the  later  buildings  in  most  respects,  though 
very  imposing  in  its  mass. 

Ill 

In  Germany  the  great  success  of  the  Romanesque  style 
in  its  later  manifestations,  the  importance  of  the  buildings 
which  existed  complete  or  nearly  complete  in  this  style, 
such  as  the  cathedrals  of  Treves,  Mayence,  Cologne  and 
Bamberg,  prevented  a  ready  acceptance  of  the  Gothic  style 
when  offered  to  the  world  about  1160,  and  still  more  pre- 
vented the  development  of  a  national  German  style  cor- 
responding to  French  Gothic  in  being  an  advance  on 
Romanesque.  The  church  of  S.  Martin  at  Cologne,  which 
we  have  spoken  of  above  as  having  an  ideal  Romanesque 
plan,  has,  covering  the  great  square  between  the  apses,  a 
splendid  tower,  —  one  of  the  most  beautiful  in  Europe. 
This  tower  can  hardly  have  been  finished  before  11 75,  a 


Sec.  Ill]  GERMANY  22/ 

time  when  the  choir  of  Notre  Dame  of  Paris  was  well 
advanced  in  complete  Gothic  construction,  but  this  tower 
shows  no  signs  of  any  modification  of  the  pure  Roman- 
esque type.  This  is  the  case  with  the  German  buildings 
of  this  epoch,  nor  is  it  surprising  that  the  style  once  devel- 
oped to  the  degree  of  perfection  attained  by  this  tower 
should  have  remained  unmodified.  It  is  not  always  in  the 
history  of  architecture  that  changes  go  on  rapidly.  The 
Germans  had  reached  a  point  with  their  Romanesque 
churches  when  the  vaulting  was  on  the  whole  satisfactory 
so  long  as  they  did  not  try  to  vault  aisles  running  around 
circular  choirs,  and  when  the  style  in  other  respects  an- 
swered all  their  requirements.  The  cathedral  of  Worms, 
built  wholly  after  1181  and  purely  Romanesque,  is  an  ex- 
cellent instance.  About  12 10,  however,  the  cathedral  of 
Magdeburg  having  been  entirely  destroyed  by  fire,  its 
rebuilding  was  begun.  It  is  a  curious  study.  No  doubt 
the  architects  had  heard  of  churches  built  in  France  with 
pointed  arches  throughout ;  no  doubt  they  saw  the  superi- 
ority of  the  pointed  arch  as  being  stronger  in  proportion 
to  its  width,  and  liked  a  novel  form.  Beyond  this  their 
adhesion  to  any  foreign  principles  of  Gothic  architecture 
did  not  go.  Figure  129  shows  the  interior  of  the  choir  of 
Magdeburg.  The  large  shafts  in  the  angles  of  the  top  of 
the  picture  rise  between  the  windows  of  the  clear-story  and 
support  the  ribs  of  a  single  vault.  This  is  an  instance 
of  a  building  with  pointed  arches,  built  at  a  time  of  full 
Gothic  development  a  few  miles  away  to  the  west,  which 
shows  no  Gothic  feeling  at  all.  The  piers  are  massive, 
and  in  fact  the  whole  enclosure  of  the  choir  is  really  a 


228 


WESTERN   EUROPE,    1150  TO    1300  A.D 


Fig.  129.     Magdeburg,  Germany :  Cathedral.     Interior  of  choir,  about  1235  ^^  1240  A.D. 

solid  wall,  with  arched  openings  in  it  instead  of  a  mere 
screen  of  columns.  The  essence  of  Gothic  construction  is 
absent.     In  like  manner  the  exterior  shows  a  high  clear- 


Sec.  Ill]  GERMANY  229 

story  wall  without  flying  buttresses,  their  place  being  sup- 
plied by  a  peculiarly  thick  wall,  reinforced  by  small,  flat 
buttresses,  the  windows  pierced  in  which  wall,  so  far  from 
filling  the  whole  space,  occupy  about  half  of  it.  The 
details  of  Magdeburg  Cathedral  are  extremely  beautiful. 
The  capitals  are  celebrated  for  their  richness  of  sculpture 
in  foliage  and  animal  form  as  well,  and  the  smaller  door- 
ways, of  which  we  give  an  instance  (Fig.  130),  are  unsur- 
passed by  any  work  of  the  same  epoch  in  Europe.  The 
whole  church  is  one  of  the  most  interesting  and  most 
worthy  of  close  study  that  we  possess.  It  is  German 
Romanesque  of  a  time  so  late  that  decorative  sculpture 
had  reached  a  high  development,  and  it  is  built  with 
pointed  arches  instead  of  round  arches,  but  it  is  not 
Gothic  because  not  constructed  in  the  Gothic  way.  The 
church  of  S.  Quirinus,  at  Neuss.,  of  the  same  epoch,  is 
another  instance  of  this  curious  style,  which  cannot  prop- 
erly be  called  a  transition  style  because  it  did  not  lead  to  a 
perfected  and  complete  one.^  S.  Quirinus  is  Romanesque 
in  plan  and  in  vaulting,  but  the  pointed  arch  is  used  freely 
in  the  blind  arcades  and  in  a  few  of  the  windows.  A  very 
singular  evidence  of  the  undecided  and  hesitating  mood  of 
the  builders  is  seen  in  the  extraordinary  shapes  of  some  of 
the  windows,  such  as  a  trefoil  combined  with  a  triangle,  a 
seven-lobed  roundel  ending  in  a  narrow  rectangle,  and  the 
like. 

It  is  noticeable  that  the  first  building  in  Germany  in 

^  The  perfected  Gothic  of  Freiburg  (see  Fig.  132)  and  of  Vienna,  Ulm,  etc., 
mentioned  in  Chapter  VI.,  is  not  a  development  of  this  thirteenth-century  work, 
but  comes  of  new  study  of  French  examples. 


230 


WESTERN   EUROPE,    1150  TO    1300   A.D. 


[Chap.  V 


which  the  Gothic  construction  and  resulting  design  were 
fully  carried  out  is   one  the  plan   of  which  is  extremely 


Fig.  130.     Magdeburg,  Germany  :  Cathedral.     Door  about  1220  A.D. 

unusual,  and  not  to  be  identified  with  the  characteristic 
plans  of  any  style.      This  is  the  church  of  Our   Lady  at 


Sec.  Ill] 


GERMANY 


231 


Treves.  For  the  plan  of  this  remarkable  structure  see 
Fig.  131.  This  church  was  erected  between  1227  and 
1243.  Its  exterior  shows  a  lingering  of  the  simple  box- 
like forms  and  absence  of  the  features  of  organized 
design  which  were  inherited  from  the  Romanesque  period, 
but  the  interior  is  frankly  Gothic  even  in  the  matter  of 
lightness  of  vertical  supports.  Again,  and  to  carry  the 
contrast  farther,  the  builders  seem  to  have  been  as  reso- 
lute to  avoid  the  use  of 
flying  buttresses,  as  were 
the  builders  of  Magde- 
burg Cathedral;  but  in 
the  interior  no  signs 
appear  of  any  resulting 
clumsiness  of  structure ; 
the  aisles  have  been  so 
combined  with  the  cruci- 
form nave,  that  the  thrust 
of  the  nave  arches  is 
taken  up  by  the  vault- 
ing of  the  aisles.  In 
order  to  bring  this  about, 
the  aisle  vaults  are  raised  to  an  unusual  height,  and  that 
which  could  not  so  well  be  done  in  a  long  church  of  the 
basilica  type  is  managed  here,  —  the  heavy  piers  between 
chapels  are  utilized  as  buttresses  within  the  enclosure. 
The  curious  church  of  SS.  Peter  and  Paul,  the  cathe- 
dral at  Brandenburg,  in  Prussia  near  Berlin,  although 
generally  classed  by  the  German  antiquaries  as  late 
Romanesque,  probably  because  of  the  heavy  piers  in  the 


Fig.  131.    Trier  or  Treves,  Prussia:  Church  of 
Our  Lady.     Built  1227  to  1243  A.  D.     Plan. 


232  WESTERN   EUROPE,    1150  TO   1300  A.D.  [Chap.  V 

interior,  is  Gothic  in  the  vaulting  and  in  the  spirit  of  the 
interior  ornamentation.  Nothing  can  be  more  interest- 
ing than  the  attempt  to  make  a  Gothic  church  at  this 
early  epoch  (before  1295)  of  a  building  which  had  to  be 
constructed  wholly  of  brick.  All  this  part  of  northern 
Germany  is  full  of  the  most  interesting  ornamental  brick- 
work, which  adapts  itself  readily  to  the  style  followed  in 
any  case.  The  church  of  S.  Elizabeth  of  Marburg  has 
the  peculiarity  that  the  aisles  are  brought  to  the  same 
height  as  the  nave  by  means  of  stilted  arches,  while  yet 
the  construction  is  wholly  Gothic.  In  short,  every  at- 
tempt seems  to  have  been  made  by  the  German  master- 
builders  to  adopt  some  part  of  the  newly  discovered 
system  of  building;  as,  for  instance,  its  elastic  strength 
and  its  adaptability,  while  seeking  novel  and  independent 
styles  of  decorative  design.  It  is,  of  course,  to  be  re- 
gretted that  none  of  these  experiments  were  carried  out 
to  their  natural  results.  The  overwhelming  influence  of 
the  rapidly  developing  Gothic  of  the  kingdom  of  France, 
with  its  offshoots  in  Burgundy,  Champagne,  Lorraine,  and 
Flanders,  overcame  all  these  local  ambitions  in  Germany, 
and  the  great  new  style  was  copied  at  the  expense  of 
native  originality. 

The  cathedral  of  Cologne  is,  as  stated  in  the  previous 
section,  completely  French  in  plan  and  general  organiza- 
tion, a  natural  and  instinctive  modification  of  the  cathe- 
dral of  Amiens.  The  work  went  on  very  slowly,  so  that 
even  the  choir,  the  only  part  completed  in  the  Middle 
Ages,  was  not  roofed  until  the  beginning  of  the  four- 
teenth century.     In  consequence  of  this  slowness  of  build- 


Sec.  Ill]  GERMANY  233 

ing,  the  architectural  details  both  within  and  without  are 
of  much  later  date  than  the  plan,  and  have  little  of  the 
freshness  of  conception  and  vigour  of  thirteenth-century 
Gothic.  The  church  at  Freiburg-im-Breisgau  is  better 
worthy  of  study  as  a  German  Gothic  church.  It  was 
almost  entirely  built  between  1230  and  1288,  only  the 
chapels  and  the  upper  part  of  the  choir  being  of  later 
date.  Figure  132  gives  a  part  of  the  south  flank  of  the 
nave,  with  the  corresponding  interior  bays,  of  this  beau- 
tiful church.  Its  marked  peculiarity  at  once  arrests  atten- 
tion ;  namely,  its  lowness  as  compared  with  the  other 
Gothic  buildings  we  have  been  considering.  Every  effort 
seems  to  have  been  made  to  keep  down  its  height,  and 
accordingly  on  a  width  of  nave  of  nearly  forty  feet  it  has 
a  height  beneath  the  vaults  of  only  eighty-seven.  In 
order  to  bring  about  this  result  the  aisles  and  clear-story 
are  kept  very  low,  the  vertical  jambs  of  the  windows  being 
generally  shorter  than  the  altitude  of  the  arch  which 
springs  from  them.  What  was  the  purpose  of  this  inno- 
vation, if  other  than  mere  economy,  it  is  hard  to  guess. 
One  peculiarity  of  this  church  it  is  necessary  to  dwell 
upon  for  a  moment,  —  the  pierced  spire,  which  seems  to 
have  been  built  between  1270  and  1300.  Spires  in  Eng- 
land and  in  Spain,  as  well  as  in  France,  seem  to  have 
been  always  considered  by  the  Gothic  builders  of  this 
epoch  as  roofs,  to  be  pierced  by  windows  much  as  other 
steep  roofs  would  be.  Here,  however,  is  the  frank  treat- 
ment of  a  spire  as  a  piece  of  pure  architectural  decora- 
tion, the  suggestion  of  a  roof  but  not  a  roof ;  the  natural 
and  fitting  culmination  of  a  lofty   tower,   but    not   in    a 


I__i I I L 


J I 


Fig.  132.     Freiburg-im-Breisgau,  Germany:   Minster.     Detail  of  south  flank  and  of 
interior.     About  1240  A.D. 


Sec.  IV]  •     ENGLAND  235 

proper  sense  the  roof  of  a  tower.  The  spire  of  Freiburg 
is  made  up  of  an  octagonal  belfry  from  which  rise  eight 
stout  ribs  or  sloping  pillars  of  stone,  held  together  by- 
crossbars  at  intervals,  the  whole  forming  the  skeleton  of 
a  slender  octagonal  pyramid.  The  open  spaces  between 
the  angle  ribs,  13  feet  wide  at  the  bottom  and  diminish- 
ing to  nothing,  are  cut  by  the  crossbars  at  intervals  of 
about  14  feet,  and  each  of  these  open  spaces  is  filled  with 
a  panel  of  pierced  tracery.  This  skeleton  construction 
rises  to  the  height  of  about  160  feet  above  the  octagon 
and  terminates  a  tower  the  total  height  of  which  is  vari- 
ously stated  at  from  365  to  385  feet.  The  conception  of 
a  pierced  spire  pleased  the  Germans;  they  return  to  it 
again  and  again  in  the  fourteenth  century,  and  later  in 
the  great  tower  of  Strasburg  modified  it  into  still  greater 
richness  and  a  still  farther  departure  from  the  primal  con- 
ception of  it  as  a  roof. 

IV 

The  latest  English  Romanesque^  is  varied  and  elabo- 
rate, as  has  been  seen  in  Chapter  IV.,  and  is  peculiar  in 
its  tendency  to  use  slender  forms,  thin  pillars,  and  con- 
siderable decoration,  purely  architectural  in  character  as 
distinguished  from  sculpture  of  natural  forms.     It  is  also 

^  The  term  "  Norman  "  commonly  applied  to  the  developed  English  Roman- 
esque should  be  avoided  in  that  sense.  Norman  architecture  is  that  which,  on 
the  continent,  is  distinguished  from  the  architecture  of  the  French  Royal 
Domain  by  certain  well-marked  characteristics ;  and  so  far  as  the  same  archi- 
tecture was  carried  to  England,  buildings  erected  there  would  also  be  Norman, 
but  the  evidences  of  this  tendency  are  few,  and  they  apply  to  pointed  as  well 
as  to  round-arched  building. 


236  WESTERN   EUROPE,  1150  TO    1300   A.D.  [Chap.  V 

peculiar  in  the  large  use  of  the  pointed  arch,  mingled  with 
the  round  arch,  in  buildings  which  are  still  wholly  Roman- 
esque in  conception  and  in  building.  Thus,  at  Fountains 
Abbey,  near  Ripon,  in  Yorkshire,  the  nave  of  the  church 
is  entirely  of  Romanesque  structure,  for  the  walls  which 
rest  upon  the  nave  arches  are  simply  massive  walls  of 
homogeneous  stone-work,  without  vaulting  shafts,  triforium 
or  other  galleries,  or  any  constructional  organization,  and 
yet  the  nave  arches  which  carry  this  wall  are  pointed. 
Kirkstall  Abbey,  near  Leeds,  in  Yorkshire,  has  similar 
characteristics.  The  building  is  as  simple  in  its  make 
and  conception  as  a  Latin  basilica,  and  is  so  far  archaic 
as  a  piece  even  of  Romanesque  construction  that  there 
is  no  visible  preparation  for  vaulting  the  nave  or  tran- 
sept. The  pointed  arches  which  carry  the  clear-story 
wall,  and  which  in  Fountains  Abbey  spring  from  heavy 
round  pillars  of  pure  English  Romanesque  type,  at  Kirk- 
stall spring  from  clustered  piers,  whose  mouldings  have 
nearly  the  same  section  as  those  of  the  arches.  So  far, 
a  step  seems  to  have  been  taken  away  from  Roman- 
esque building  toward  the  elaborate  constructional  system 
which  we  call  Gothic  Architecture  ;  but  the  signs  of 
progress  are  confined  to  this  feature ;  apart  from  it,  Kirk- 
stall Abbey  church  is  a  simple  and  exquisite  piece  of 
Romanesque  church  building.  These  churches  are  of 
the  years  between  1 1 50  and  1 1 70.  A  curious  exception 
to  the  purely  Romanesque  character  of  the  buildings 
with  pointed  arches  built  during  these  years  is  seen  in 
the  noble  abbey  church  of  Glastonbury  in  Somersetshire. 
The   church    proper   and   the  very  curious    Lady-Chapel 


Sec.  IV]  ENGLAND  237 

have  Gothic  vaulting  with  sharply  pointed  arches;  the 
transverse  ribs  heavy  and  decorated  with  leafage,  while 
the  diagonal  ribs  and  wall-ribs  are  not  heavier  than 
in  French  work  of  the  time.  Underneath  these  fine 
Gothic  vaults,  in  which  the  transitional  character  is 
marked  only  by  the  heavy  transverse  arches,  the  high 
windows  are  of  pure  Romanesque  design  with  semicir- 
cular arches.  There  seems  to  be  no  doubt  that  the 
church  and  the  chapel  were  each  built,  complete,  between 
1 1 80  and  1 190.  In  the  Cathedral  of  Saint  David's  in 
Pembrokeshire  (Wales),  similar  Romanesque  windows  are 
found  beneath  highly  developed  Gothic  vaulting  of  sex- 
partite  plan  (see  p.  194):  but  here  there  is  no  certainty 
as  to  the  length  of  time  which  separated  the  vaulting 
from  the  substructure. 

The  beautiful  choir  of  the  minster  at  Ripon,  in  York- 
shire, is  certainly  of  the  closing  years  of  the  twelfth 
century,  with  the  exception  of  the  vaulting,  and  with  the 
important  exception  of  the  two  eastern  bays.  The 
western  part  of  this  choir,  then,  is  perhaps  as  early  a 
piece  of  pure  Gothic  building  as  there  is  in  England. 
The  transept  and  the  three  western  bays  of  the  choir 
are  admittedly  of  about  11 80,  always  excepting  the 
vaulting  itself.  The  piers,  the  arch  mouldings,  the 
vaulting  shafts,  the  triforium,  and  the  clear-story  arcade 
are  all  pure  early  English  Gothic,  and  the  organization 
of  the  structure  is  complete ;  and  yet  round  arches  are 
used  as  freely  here  in  connection  with  the  pointed  ones 
as  pointed  arches  are  used  in  the  Romanesque  buildings 
above  named.      This    mingling  of   styles,  at  least  in  the 


238  WESTERN  EUROPE,  1150  TO   1300  A.D.  [Chap.  V 

architectural  details,  remains  characteristic  of  English 
architecture  until  a  late  period  of  the  Gothic  develop- 
ment. The  earliest  English  piece  of  pure  Gothic  archi- 
tecture is  generally  admitted  to  be  the  extreme  eastern 
portion  of  the  cathedral  at  Canterbury,  that  is  to  say 
Trinity  Chapel  and  the  nearly  circular  building  adjoin- 
ing it  on  the  east  and  known  as  Becket's  Crown.  This 
work  was  begun  about  1175  by  a  French  architect,  who 
was  succeeded  four  years  later  by  one  called  emphati- 
cally, and  by  way  of  distinction,  William  the  English- 
man. In  this  work  round  arches  are  freely  used,  but 
strangely  enough  they  are  used  for  the  great  archways 
of  the  nave,  while  the  pointed  arch  is  used  for  the 
much  smaller  openings  above.  This,  however,  is  not 
the  only  surprising  feature  in  this  exquisite  composition. 
The  high  vaults  of  this  earliest  part  of  Canterbury  are 
so  far  from  being  Gothic  of  a  strict  type  that  the  curves 
made  by  the  shells  which  fill  up  the  spaces  between  the 
ribs  are  almost  everywhere  circular.  In  other  words,  the 
vaults  are  nearly  of  the  character  shown  in  Fig.  88, 
while  yet  the  rib-work,  or  in  other  words  the  construc- 
tive skeleton  of  the  vault,  seems  to  be  as  technically 
correct  as  anything  in  France. 

The  earliest  English  Gothic  vaulting  on  a  large  scale  is 
probably  that  of  the  choir  of  Lincoln  Cathedral,  which  was 
built  about  12 10-1235.  The  first  complete  Gothic  cathe- 
dral is  that  of  Salisbury,  built  almost  entirely,  except  the 
spire,  between  1220  and  1260.  In  these  buildings  the 
general  tendencies  of  English  Gothic  are  sufficiently  vis- 
ible.    In    Canterbury  there  is   to  be   seen    that    extreme 


PLATE     II.  CATHEDRAL   OF    SALISBURY    (WILTSHIRE)    ENGLAND 

Built  1220-40,  spire  about  1250.     View  from  the  S.  W.  of   the    Nave    ar.d   western   Transept, 


Sec.  IV]  ENGLAND  239 

picturesqueness  of  detail  which  combines  well  with  the 
generally  small  scale  of  the  English  churches,  and  which 
goes  far  to  harmonize  the  differing  styles  which  in  these 
cathedrals  are  brought  into  juxtaposition,  Romanesque 
with  early  Gothic,  and  both  with  Perpendicular.  In  Lin- 
coln is  seen  that  disposition  to  make  the  vaulting  convex 
rather  than  concave,  always  common  in  English  work  and 
which  leads  finally  to  the  splendid  novelty  which  we  call 
fan-vaulting :  —  and  in  the  pillars,  archivolts  and  spandrels 
especially  of  the  choir,  that  exquisite  delicacy  of  floral 
and  foliated  sculpture  which  is  the  chief  grace  of  early 
English  Gothic.  Finally  at  Salisbury  (see  Plate  II.)  we 
have  a  church  carried  out  complete  according  to  the  Eng- 
lish conception ;  small  in  its  parts,  neither  wide  nor  high, 
nor  capable  of  the  effect  of  grandeur  produced  by  mere 
enclosed  space,  this  partly  made  up  for  by  great  length ; 
extreme  diversity  of  outline  produced  by  double  transepts, 
side-porches,  sacristy  and  chapter-house  outside  of  the 
main  structure  but  grouped  with  it,  Lady-Chapel  project- 
ing from  the  east  end,  —  a  diversity  so  great  that  an 
English  cathedral  often  seems  many  buildings  rising  one 
beyond  another  rather  than  a  simple  structure. 

It  is  necessary  to  dwell  upon  the  English  vaulting 
because  it  is  the  most  essential  peculiarity  of  the  style, 
that  which  separates  English  work  most  decidedly  from 
that  of  the  continent  and  has  given  rise  to  the  opinion, 
held  by  some,  that  Gothic  architecture  in  the  strict  sense 
was  not  adopted  in  England.  In  Fig.  133  let  A,  B,  C,  D 
be  the  four  points  of  support  afforded  by  the  nave  piers. 
O  is  the  crown  of  the  vault,  the  point  at  which  the  diag- 


240 


WESTERN   EUROPE,  1150  TO    1300   A.D. 


[Chap.  V 


onal  arches  on  A,  D  and  B,  C  meet.  At  Lincoln  cathe- 
dral the  ribs  AP,  BP,  CP\  and  DP\  are  built ;  these  ribs 
are,  of  course,  half-arches,  as  was  explained  in  connection 
with  Fig.  1 1 3.  From  the  points  where  they  meet,  P  and 
P\  short  ribs  run  to  the  crown  O,  and  other  ribs  are 
carried  on  in  the  same  direction  to  the  corresponding 
points  in  the  adjoining  squares  of  vaulting.     It  is  evident 

that  in  this  system  of 
vaulting  there  are  more 
ribs  than  there  is  any 
need  of.  The  curious 
piece  of  construction 
made  up  of  the  ribs 
AP,  BP,  PO  in  Fig. 
1 33  is  absolutely  without 
utility.  The  builders 
had  fallen  in  love  with 
the  effect  of  the  inverted 
half-pyramid  of  which 
B,  O,  0\  in  Fig.  133 
is  the  plan,  and  which 
is  seen  so  plainly  in 
Fig.  135  below.  English 
vaulting  from  this  time  on  is  extremely  apt  to  run  into 
this  curious  excess.  It  is  not  unpleasing  in  effect;  its 
apparent  excess  of  weight  is  not  disagreeable  and  may 
indeed  be  thought  to  add  to  the  truly  Gothic  effect  of 
a  heavy  roof  on  slender  supports ;  but  it  is  not  strictly 
Gothic  construction.  Gothic  construction  is  simple  and 
obvious ;  it  resorts  to  the  readiest  means,  it  is  reluctant 


19      O 

i JL- 


.50' 


Fig.  133.     Lincoln,  England:   Cathedral.     Plan 
of  choir  vaulting.     About  1225  A.D. 


Sec.  IV] 


ENGLAND 


241 


to  use  a  cubic  foot  of  stone  unnecessarily ;  whereas  this 
and  much  other  Enghsh  building  of  the  time  is  sophisti- 
cated, in  a  sense. 

It  must  be  observed  that  the  English  derivations  from 
pure  Gothic  building  are  very  different  in  spirit  and 
character  from  those  which  are  found  in  Germany,  as 
explained  above.  The  German 
builder  was  always  reluctant 
to  abandon  the  massiveness 
of  his  Romanesque  piers  and 
walls ;  and  his  early  Gothic 
buildings  are  of  a  somewhat 
ugly  hybrid  character.  The 
Englishman,  on  the  other  hand, 
was  quick  to  make  even  his 
round-arched  work  light  and 
graceful,  and  his  transitional 
or  semi-Gothic  buildings  are 
very  tasteful. 

The    left-hand  half    of    the 
diagram  (Fig.  133)  shows  the 
wholly  exceptional  vaulting  of 
four  bays  of  Lincoln  choir.     It  is  a  whimsical  attempt  at 
novelty  which  led  to  no  results. 

The  vaulting  of  the  nave  of  Lincoln,  which  is  a  few 
years  later  than  that  of  the  choir,  introduces  a  new  ele- 
ment. The  half-pyramids  are  made  more  complicated 
still.  Figure  134  shows  this  new  arrangement.  O  being 
the  crown  of  the  vault,  and  the  ribs  OP,  OP",  sloping  a 
little  downward  from   O,  the   two  new  centres  kS"  and  S" 


Fig.  135.     Lincoln,  England:  View  of  nave  vaulting  (see  Fig.  134). 


Sec.  IV]  ENGLAND  243 

are  put  in,  the  ribs  OS,  0S\  slope  at  the  same  angle  as 
OP,  0P\  and  the  new  ribs  AS,  BS\  etc.,  are  built.  The 
triangle  ACS  has  no  rib  closing  it  at  top,  where  the 
two  sides  arching  up  from  A  and  C  meet ;  but  the  angle 
where  they  meet,  and  which  extends  horizontally  from  6' 
to  the  crown  of  the  wall-arch  AC,  is  horizontal  and  on 
a  level  with  the  point  6^.  We  have,  therefore,  a  little 
dome-shaped  central  square,  SPS'P\  in  each  vault  of 
the  nave.  This  is  certainly  a  beauty  in  itself,  but  the 
number  of  unnecessary  ribs  is  greatly  increased  by  this 
arrangement,  and  the  apparent  weight  of  the  vault  is 
increased.  See  Fig.  135,  which  shows  a  part  of  the  nave 
of  Lincoln  Cathedral,  corresponding  exactly  to  the  plan 
(Fig.  134).  It  is  evident  that  the  builders  loved  the  com- 
plicated pattern  made  by  the  ribs  as  seen  from  below.  It 
is  to  be  observed  that  the  multiplicity  of  ribs  tends  to 
bring  the  vaulting  down,  near  to  the  eye,  and  diminishes 
in  appearance  the  already  inferior  height  of  the  English 
naves. 

The  details,  both  architectural  and  sculptural,  of  the 
English  churches  of  the  thirteenth  century  are  pecul- 
iarly worthy  of  study.  They  differ  singularly  from  the 
French  work  of  the  same  period.  The  forms  of  the 
windows  are  peculiar  in  this,  that  high  and  narrow 
windows  were  grouped  together  in  twos,  in  threes,  and 
in  fives,  and  form  in  this  way  the  main  fenestration  of 
a  large  building  at  a  time  when  the  continental  churches 
were  lighted  by  means  of  large  traceried  windows.  Fig- 
ure 136  gives  one  of  these  groups  of  lancet  windows,  as 
they  are  called,  from  the  north   aisle  of  Carlisle   Cathe- 


Fig.  136.     Carlisle,  England:  Cathedral.     Two  bays  of  north  aisle  of  choir. 


Sec.  V]  ITALY  245 

dral  in  Cumberland.  It  will  be  seen  that  the  wall  below 
the  wall-arch  of  the  vault,  which  is  called  the  lunette  in 
the  revived  classical  architecture  of  later  times,  is  treated 
here,  as  in  that  later  architecture  and  in  contra-distinc- 
tion  to  the  Gothic  architecture  of  France  proper  and  the 
neighbouring  provinces,  as  a  wall  into  which  windows  are 
to  be  put  in  at  pleasure,  and  considerable  wall  spaces  left 
requiring  decoration.  This  figure  shows  also  an  inter- 
esting arcade  decorating  the  wall  beneath  the  windows 
and  most  characteristic  in  all  its  parts  of  the  English 
style  of  the  thirteenth  century.^  Both  documentary 
and  internal  evidence  point  to  the  existence  of  French 
and  Italian  influence, — the  former  in  the  architectural 
forms,  the  latter  in  the  sculpture ;  but  they  point  also 
to  a  native  school  of  decorative  sculptors,  whose  work 
deserves  a  very  careful  examination  and  analysis.  The 
monument  in  Salisbury  Cathedral,  at  the  angle  between 
the  south  choir-aisle  and  the  eastern  transept,  is  an  ex- 
cellent example  (see  Fig.  137).  It  was  erected  to  the 
memory  of  Bishop  Giles  of  Bridport  (ti262),  in  whose 
time  the  cathedral  was  finished,  except  the  spire. 


V 

Buildings  with  pointed  arches,  and  with  vaulted  roofs 
built  with  ribs  in  the  Gothic  style,  exist  in  Italy  through- 
out the  whole  length  of  the  peninsula,  and  among  them 

^  The  adjoining  bay  is  shown  in  Fig.  136  as  filled  with  a  fifteenth-century 
perpendicular  window  occupying  the  whole  height  and  nearly  the  whole  breadth 
of  the  space  within  the  wall-arch.    The  print  from  which  this  is  copied  is  of  1839 


Fig.  137.     Salisbury,  England:  Tomb  of  Bishop  Giles  of  Bridport  in  the  Cathedral. 

1262  A.D. 


Sec.  V]  ITALY  247 

are  some  which  are  known  to  be  early  in  date.  The 
church  which  is  generally  considered  the  earliest  piece 
of  architecture  in  Italy,  in  which  the  above  characteris- 
tics of  the  Gothic  style  appear,  is  that  of  the  abbey  of 
Fossanova  in  the  province  of  Rome,  and  not  many  miles 
southwest  of  the  city.  In  this  church  a  nave  of  seven 
bays  and  about  thirty  feet  wide,  flanked  by  low  and  nar- 
row aisles,  a  transept  without  aisles,  and  a  short  choir 
of  only  two  bays  and  almost  without  aisles,  constitute 
the  plan.  The  pillars  which  separate  the  nave  from  the 
aisles  are  large  square  piers,  each  one  flanked  by  slender 
colonnettes ;  and  the  vaulting  shaft  of  the  nave,  that  is  to 
say,  the  colonnette  from  which  the  nave  vault  springs,  is 
carried  on  a  corbel  about  six  feet  above  the  floor.  The 
main  vaults  of  nave  and  aisles  are  built  without  ribs,  but 
the  square  at  the  meeting  of  the  nave  and  transept  is 
vaulted  with  ribs  in  a  domical  form  and  having  an  eye 
at  the  crown.  The  chapter-house  is  vaulted  with  ribs 
which  spring  from  pillars  made  up  of  slender  columns 
(see  Fig.  138).  As  might  be  expected,  the  church  has  no 
flying  buttresses.  As  common  in  Italy  at  all  times,  the 
roofs  are  of  low  pitch  and  the  windows  very  small.  In 
short,  the  church  at  Fossanova,  which  was  certainly  built 
between  1187  and  1208,  is  in  no  sense  developed  Gothic; 
it  is  Romanesque,  with  pointed  arches,  and  with  the 
additional  feature  of  a  rose  window  in  the  west  front.^ 
The  refectory  of  the  abbey  of  Fossanova  is  shown  in 

1  The  very  valuable  book  on  The  Cathedrals  of  England  and  Wales,  taken  from 
the  London  journal  The  Builder  and  edited  by  Mr.  H.  H.  Statham,  gives  the 
assurance  that  this  vv^indow  has  been  removed  by  nineteenth-century  restorers 
and  early  English  windows  substituted. 


248 


WESTERN    EUROPE,    1150  TO   1300   A.D. 


[Chap.  V 


Fig.  1 38  A.  There  is  no  pretence  at  vaulting,  but  large  and 
stout  arches  are  sprung  across  the  whole  width  of  the 
room,  and  these  carry  walls  upon  which  rests  the  low- 
pitched  roof.  The  picturesqueness  of  the  design  takes 
one  at   once  to  some  little  town  in  eastern  France.      If 


Fig.  138.     Fossanova,  Italy:  Chapter- House.     About  1225  a.d. 


this  interior  is  not  Gothic  in  a  strict  sense,  it  is  at  least 
northern  in  feeling,  in  spite  of  the  low  pitch  of  the  roof 
and  the  comparatively  small  amount  of  window  space. 
It  will  be  noted  that  the  church,  finished  about  1205,  the 
refectory  about  the  same  date,  as  near  as  can  be  judged, 
and  the  chapter-house    about    1225,   are    roofed   in  three 


Fig,  138 a.     Fossanova,  Italy:  Refectory.     About  1205  a.d. 


250  WESTERN  EUROPE,    1150   TO    1300  A.D.  [Chap.  V 

different  ways ;  one  by  groined  vaults  like  an  early  Ro- 
manesque building,  one  by  the  simple  device  not  uncom- 
mon among  Romanesque  buildings,  described  on  pp. 
132,  133,  and  one  by  rib-vaults  in  the  Gothic  manner. 
Now  it  is  clear  that  the  builders  of  such  abbeys  as  Fossa- 
nova  were  not  decided  in  favour  of  any  style.  They  were 
experimenting;  the  great  northern  Gothic  style  they 
knew  of  and  would  gladly  have  used,  but  the  old  Roman 
groined  vault  was  more  familiar  to  them,  and  a  wooden 
roof  on  stone  arches,  cheaper.  A  most  interesting  style 
seems  to  have  been  on  the  point  of  developing  itself  in 
these  abbeys,  but  some  influence,  probably  the  poverty  of 
the  institutions  and  the  superior  importance  of  the  city 
churches,  prevented  it. 

The  ruined  church  of  San  Galgano  in  Tuscany  is  very 
similar  to  that  at  Fossanova  in  plan,  in  the  arrangement 
of  the  openings,  and  in  the  style  of  the  work,  except  that 
the  architectural  sculpture,  as  in  the  capitals,  is  much 
more  elegant  and  highly  finished.  This  church  was 
begun  in  1218,  and  was  probably  completed  on  the  lines 
of  the  original  design,  although  the  work  seems  to  have 
gone  on  slowly.  The  greater  size  of  the  windows  is 
perhaps  the  only  detail  which  marks  this  design  as  more 
nearly  Gothic  in  the  strict  sense  than  the  church  of  Fos- 
sanova. The  conventual  church  near  Chieti,  on  the 
Adriatic,  and  called  by  the  people  Santa  Maria  d'  Arbona, 
contains  a  feature  more  fearlessly  and  frankly  Gothic 
than  either  of  the  above-named  churches.  This  is  the 
vaulting  of  the  square  at  the  crossing  of  the  nave  and 
transept   (see    Fig.    139).     The   diagonal    ribs,  which   are 


Fig.  139.     Santa  Maria  d' Arbona,  Italy :  Church.     About  12 10  a.d. 


252  WESTERN  EUROPE,    1150  TO   1300  A.D.  [Chap.  V 

built  with  a  large  eye  at  the  crown  of  the  vault,  are 
semicircular.  As  the  transverse  arches  though  pointed 
are  very  blunt,  the  crown  of  the  vault  is  much  higher 
than  the  crowns  of  these  arches.  Secondary  ribs  are 
carried  from  the  crowns  of  these  arches  to  the  central  eye, 
the  whole  forming  a  very  bold  and  striking  piece  of  vault- 
ing. As  all  the  neighbouring  bays  are  vaulted  with  diag- 
onal ribs  and  well  crowned  up,  this  is  a  far  more  Gothic- 
looking  roof  than  either  of  those  mentioned  above ;  but 
otherwise  the  church  is  Romanesque  in  character,  having 
solid  walls  beneath  the  wall-arches  of  the  vault,  and  small 
round-headed  windows  pierced  in  these  walls.  The 
church  of  S.  Martino  near  Viterbo,  northwest  of  the  city 
of  Rome,  is  peculiar  in  having  vaulting  of  that  system 
which  we  found  in  S.  Ambrogio  at  Milan,  and  S.  Michele 
at  Pavia,  that  is,  with  one  bay  of  the  nave  corresponding 
to  two  bays  of  the  aisles ;  but  this  combined  with  pointed 
arches,  and  a  polygonal  apse  vaulted  by  means  of  ribs, 
thrusting  against  well-marked  buttresses  on  the  exterior. 
The  archivolts  are  moulded,  though  retaining  the  general 
shape  of  the  outer  and  inner  ring  of  voussoirs.  These 
buildings,  though  showing  strong  influence  from  the 
North,  are  none  of  them  Gothic  in  the  sense  in  which 
contemporary  buildings  in  France,  Spain,  or  Flanders, 
are  Gothic,  and  they  are  contemporary  with  buildings 
in  which  the  Italian  round-arched  style  is  left  almost 
unmodified,  as  in  the  important  church  of  Chiaravalle, 
near  Milan,  and  others  in  which  there  is  no  attempt  at 
vaulting,  and  no  preparations  for  it,  as  in  S.  Fermo  of 
Verona. 


Fig.  140.     Florence,  Italy:  S.  Maria  Novella.     Nave.     Built  about  second  half  of 

thirteenth  century. 


254  WESTERN   EUROPE,    1150  TO    1300  A.D.  [Chap.  V 

The  Italian  treatment  of  the  Gothic  interior,  which,  as 
has  been  stated,  is  always  the  first  thing  considered  in  the 
Gothic  style,  is  well  shown  in  the  famous  church  of  S. 
Maria  Novella  in  Florence,  built  about  1280.  Figure  140 
shows  the  vaulting  of  the  nave  and  aisles.  The  difference 
of  heisfht  between  nave  and  aisles  is  so  little  that  there  is 
nothing  to  stand  for  the  clear-story  except  the  odd-shaped 
bit  of  wall  enclosed  by  the  arches  above  and  below.  The 
clear-story  windows  are  replaced  by  small  bull's-eyes  less 
than  three  feet  in  diameter.  The  richer  treatment  of 
the  same  Italian-Gothic  interior  is  well  seen  in  the  lovely 
church  of  S.  Anastasia  in  Verona.  In  this  church,  heavy 
round  pillars  separate  the  nave  from  the  aisles;  these  are 
carried  up  to  a  great  height,  because  here  also  the  aisles  are 
high  in  proportion  to  the  nave ;  they  carry  pointed  arches 
decorated  by  simple  mouldings  and  voussoirs  alternately  of 
brick  and  stone.  The  points  of  these  arches  reach  exactly 
to  the  springing  of  the  nave  vaulting,  so  that  what  corre- 
sponds to  the  clear-story  wall  and  triforium  is,  as  in  S.  Maria 
Novella,  apiece  of  wall  bounded  by  curves  above  and  below, 
and  decorated  by  the  two  small,  round  windows  which 
pierce  it,  and  by  bands  of  painted  decoration.  Figure  141 
shows  the  arrangement  of  this  vaulting  seen  from  the  nave, 
and  the  shape  of  the. resulting  piece  of  wall  with  its  windows 
and  painted  ornaments.  Figure  142  is  a  view  of  the 
exterior,  in  which  it  will  be  seen  that  the  primitive  appli- 
ance mentioned  above  (p.  198)  as  having  preceded  flying 
buttresses,  namely,  a  series  of  walls  built  upon  arches 
thrown  across  the  aisles,  is  used  here  to  take  up  the  thrust 
of  the  nave  vault.     This  view  is  further  useful  as  showing 


Fig.  141.     Verona,  Italy:  S.  Anastasia.     One  bay  of  nave.    About  1270  a.d. 


256 


WESTERN   EUROPE,    1150   TO    1300   A.D. 


[Chap.  V 


at  once  many  of  the  features  of  churches  in  the  Italian- 
Gothic  style.  The  low-pitched  roof ;  the  small  windows ; 
the  comparatively  large  size  of  the  windows  in  the  ends  or 
fronts  of  the  transepts,  which  with  those  in  the  west  fronts 
are  more  counted  on  in  these  churches  than  the  clear-story 
windows ;  the  plain  brick  walls 
with  arcaded  cornices  and  with 
shallow  buttresses  marking  the 
divisions  between  the  bays,  but 
without  Gothic  panelling,  arcading, 
or  other  reference  to  the  construc- 
tional system ;  the  window-tracery 


Fig.  142.     Verona  :  S.  Anastasia.     Last  years  of  thirteenth  century  except  tower. 


consisting  of  openings  pierced  in  a  slab,  the  openings 
themselves  being  dwelt  upon  as  forming  a  pattern  in  dark 
on  light;  and  finally,  the  square  plain  straight  bell-tower 
built  more  or  less  apart  from  the  church  itself :  —  all  these 
are  to  be  seen  here  as  well  as  in  any  example  that  could  be 
furnished.  The  style  has  undoubted  charm.  There  are 
many  persons  who  find  it  appeal  to  their  sympathies  more 
than  true  French  Gothic.     Its  very  lack  of  finish  and  of 


Sec.  V]  ITALY  257 

organization,  its  broad  plain  walls  leaving  room  for  paint- 
ings within,  and  for  decorative  facing  of  marble  without, 
when  the  cost  could  be  met,  these  and  such  other  peculiar- 
ities appeal  to  the  Southerner  as  against  the  Northerner  in 
sympathy  and  in  taste,  and  appeal  also  to  the  student  who 
in  art  loves  painting,  let  us  say,  rather  than  architecture. 
To  thoroughly  enjoy  the  architecture  of  a  French  cathedral, 
one  must  have  the  natural  or  acquired  sense  of  organism. 
The  structure  before  him  must  appeal  to  his  sense  of  what 
is  perfectly  understood  and  well  thought  out  as  a  system 
of  building,  or  he  will  find  it  too  complex.  The  Italian 
buildings,  with  their  unconsidered,  careless  structure,  as  of 
a  style  only  half  understood  and  not  thought  impor- 
tant to  study  out;  with  their  broad,  sun-lit  surfaces  of 
plain  wall,  and  their  beautiful  details  set  in  here  and 
there  as  if  by  accident,  will  please  such  an  art-student 
better  than  the  perfections  of  Bourges  Cathedral  or  the 
Sainte  Chapelle. 

The  beautiful  and  famous  church  of  S.  Francis  at  Assisi 
has  its  inner  wall  spaces  covered  with  paintings  of  great 
decorative  value,  and  in  these  the  pictures  of  sacred  sub- 
ject are  framed  and  set  off  by  borders  and  friezes  of  the 
most  varied  and  well-composed  ornamental  patterns.  No- 
where in  European  art  are  to  be  found  more  successful 
designs  in  scroll-work  and  non-natural  leafage;  and  no- 
where is  the  true  value  of  such  ornament,  as  a  frame  and  a 
foil  to  representative  art,  more  plainly  to  be  seen.  Figure 
143  gives  one  bay  of  this  structure,  showing  the  upper 
and  the  lower  church.  Comparison  with  northern  Gothic 
interiors,  as  in  Figs.  ii8,  121,  and  135,  will  show  the  vast 


258 


WESTERN    EUROPE,    1150   TO    1300   A.D. 


[Chap.  V 


Fig.    143.     Assisi,  Italy:  S.  Francis.     One  bay  of  upper  and  of  lower  church.     First 
half  of  thirteenth  century. 

difference  of  conception  and  of  purpose  between  northern 
and  southern  builders. 

It   must   be  remembered  that   the    Italians  have  never 


Sec.  V]  ITALY  259 

been  a  building  race,  in  the  sense  in  which  the  Egyptians, 
the  Greeks  of  500  b.c,  the  Byzantines  of  500  a.d.  and 
the  Gallo-Frank  populations  of  1200  a.d.  were  building 
races.  Under  the  Roman  Empire,  engineering  skill  was 
developed  to  meet  the  new  needs  of  a  world-wide  adminis- 
tration, and  to  provide  lordly  structures  for  it,  and  Grecian 
sense  and  power  of  art  were  at  command.  Except  during 
those  great  years,  50  b.c.  to  250  a.d.,  no  Italian  buildings 
were  of  any  consequence,  as  buildings,  until,  in  the  fifteenth 
century,  scientific  students  of  construction  began  to  build 
in  a  scientific  way.  Even  then  skilful  building  was  rare. 
Beautiful  sculpture,  and  painting  of  royal  splendour,  found 
a  home  in  buildings  put  up  under  the  immediate  direction 
of  the  sculptors  and  the  painters  themselves,  the  ablest  that 
the  world  had  known  since  the  time  of  the  Greeks ;  but 
these  artists  were  not  skilled  builders,  they  had  not  the 
building  instinct;  and  the  Gothic  of  Italy  became  what 
other  Italian  styles  had  been  before,  and  were  to  be  there- 
after, better  in  everything  than  as  a  system  of  organized 
and  intelligent  building. 


CHAPTER    VI 

THE  ARCHITECTURE  OF  WESTERN  EUROPE,  1300  TO  1420 
A.D.  The  Progress  of  Gothic  Architecture  hindered  in  France  by 
War  and  Popular  Distress.  In  Flanders  and  Spain  its  Development 
IS  MORE  Continuous.  In  England  and  in  Germany  Growth  is  Rapid, 
AND  THE  Style  becomes  more  National.  In  Italy  Beautiful  and 
Strong  Artistic  Feeling  still  fails  to  make  a  National  Gothic  Style. 


In  the  city  of  Rouen  is  a  famous  abbey  church,  more 
admired  by  travellers  and  more  insisted  on  in  guide-books 
than  even  the  beautiful  cathedral  of  that  city.  This 
church  of  S.  Ouen,  begun  in  1318,  was  built  within  the 
course  of  the  fourteenth  century,  except  the  west  front  and 
towers,  which  are  modern  and  are  not  even  on  the  plan  of 
those  originally  proposed.  Figure  144  gives  the  plan  of 
this  church.  Plate  III.  gives  a  view  of  the  exterior  from 
the  southeast.  The  important  thing  to  note  in  this  de- 
sign is  the  complete  organization  of  the  structure.  There 
are  no  hesitations  visible,  no  changes  of  programme  made 
in  the  course  of  the  work ;  the  parts  grow  naturally  out 
of  each  other  from  foundation  to  lantern.  A  curious  in- 
stance of  the  complete  method  followed  by  the  builders  is 

seen  in  the  flying  buttresses  where  the  choir  and  south 

260 


Sec.  I] 


FRANCE 


261 


transept  form  their  re-entrant  angle.  The  flying  buttress 
which  takes  the  thrust  of  the  vault  of  the  south  transept 
bears  upon  the  slender  shaft  of  the  westernmost  choir- 
buttress,  and  then  by  another  flying  buttress  upon  the  cor- 
responding shaft  of  the  next  choir-buttress.  This  second 
slender  shaft  would  be  insufficient,  but  that  it  is  heavily 
loaded  and  so  maintained  in  place  by  the  weight  thrown 
upon  it  above,  consisting  of  the  double  flying  buttress  of 
the  great  clear-story  vault.     It  will   be   noticed  that   not 


Fig.  144.     Rouen,  France:  S.  Ouen.     Built,  except  the  chapels,  between  1320  and 
1350  A.D.     West  end  as  originally  planned. 

only  these  small  shafts  and  pinnacles,  but  also  the  outer- 
most buttress  piers,  where  they  rise  clear  of  the  chapel 
roof,  are  extremely  light.  These  grow  larger  above  than 
they  are  at  the  level  of  the  gutter,  overhanging  on  the 
inner  side  towards  the  church  very  considerably,  and  this 
overhang  is  most  carefully  arranged  to  counteract  the  out- 
ward thrust  of  the  flying  buttresses.  It  will  be  seen,  too, 
that  the  great  windows  of  the  clear-story  fill  the  whole 
space  between  the  slender  piers  against  which  the  flying 
buttresses  are  built.  The  stone  arch  which  closes  these 
window  openings  at  the  top  is  also  the  wall-arch  of  the 


262  WESTERN   EUROPE,    1300  TO   1420  A.D.  [Chap.  VI 

vault  within ;  that  is  to  say,  there  is  no  wall  whatever  here, 
for  the  triangular  spandrels  showing  above  this  window- 
arch  are  merely  the  outward  facings  of  the  mass  of  ma- 
sonry which  fills  up  the  haunches  of  the  vault  within  and 
keeps  that  vault  in  place.  There  is  nothing  new  as  to 
principle  in  all  this.  It  is  the  system  of  the  thirteenth 
century  carried  out  in  a  perfectly  legitimate  way.  In  fact, 
the  fourteenth  century  has  not  much  to  offer  in  the  way 
of  new  principles ;  the  theory  of  Gothic  construction  was 
complete  in  France  by  1250,  and  there  seemed  nothing  to 
be  done  but  to  go  on  and  seek  for  still  greater  size  of 
window  surface  and  still  lighter  pillars  of  support.  More- 
over, the  thirteenth  century  had  built  and  begun  to  build 
so  many  and  so  large  churches  that  the  fourteenth  century 
had  little  to  do  but  to  further  adorn  the  finished  ones  and 
carry  the  others  to  completion. 

In  undertaking  this  task  of  completion  and  decoration, 
one  of  the  ideas  of  the  fourteenth  century  was  a  row  of 
chapels  along  the  aisle  walls  and  a  ring  of  them  where  the 
aisle  turns  round  the  choir  at  the  east  end.  This  feature 
is  well  seen  in  both  its  forms  at  S.  Ouen.  The  little 
building  in  the  extreme  foreground  of  Plate  III.  is  later; 
the  chapels  we  are  discussing  are  those  structures  built 
in  between  the  buttresses.  On  the  south  wall  of  the  choir 
they  have  square  pyramidal  roofs,  and  each  has  one  large 
six-light  window.  Where  the  aisle  turns  round  the  ckevei, 
these  chapels  take  a  polygonal  form  with  buttresses  at  their 
angles  and  polygonal  pyramids  for  their  roofs.  Some  most 
delicate  and  subtle  specimens  of  vaulting  are  seen  in  these 
radiating  chapels,  but  the  principles  involved  are  not  novel. 


PLATE  III.  CHURCH  OF  ST.  OUEN  AT  ROUEN  (SEINE  INF&RIEURE)  FRANCE 

Built   1318-30;     Central  tower,    Porch    and    low    foreground    structure,    XV  century. 
View  from  the   S.  E.  of  the  choir  and  Transept. 


Sec.  I]  FRANCE  263 

The  lantern  of  S.  Ouen,  which  takes  the  place  of  the 
massive  central  tower  forming  a  part  of  some  thirteenth- 
century  cathedrals,  is  novel  in  appearance,  but  in  no  re- 
spect different  in  character  from  those  more  massive 
structures.  It  may  be  compared  with  the  central  tower 
of  the  cathedral  at  Salisbury,  which  is  a  little  smaller  in 
plan.  The  builders  of  the  French  cathedrals  of  the  thir- 
teenth century  rather  avoided  the  large  central  tower,  but 
the  smaller  dimensions  of  Salisbury  Cathedral  and  of 
S.  Ouen  make  such  a  tower  more  feasible,  and  its  beauty 
as  an  architectural  feature  could  never  have  been  ignored. 
Salisbury  is  unique  in  the  world  in  this  respect,  the  tower 
having  its  full  size  carried  up  to  a  considerable  height  and 
a  solid  stone  spire  to  roof  it,  rising  to  a  height  of  400  feet. 
What  the  fourteenth-century  architects  thought  of  the 
question  is  well  shown  in  the  case  of  S.  Ouen,  where  the 
light  lantern  is  kept  down  to  a  height  of  270  feet. 

It  seems  that  there  was  not  in  France,  as  it  then  existed, 
one  other  considerable  church  built  entirely  in  the  course 
of  the  fourteenth  century.  The  cathedral  of  Clermont- 
Ferrand  was  carried  on  westward  from  the  thirteenth-cen- 
tury choir;  the  cathedral  of  Limoges,  begun  at  the  east 
end  toward  the  close  of  the  thirteenth  century,  has  its  very 
interesting  choir  and  transepts  practically  of  the  fourteenth 
century ;  and  the  cathedral  of  S.  Andr^  at  Bordeaux  saw  its 
beautiful  choir  and  north  transept,  begun  during  the  brief 
period  that  the  kings  of  France  ruled  there  (before  1302), 
continued  and  completed.  The  wonderful  church  of  S. 
Urbain  at  Troyes  would  require  a  long  analysis  to  fully 
explain  its  originality  and  boldness,  but  it  is  a  work  apart, 


264  WESTERN   EUROPE,    1300  TO    1420   A.D.  [Chap.  VI 

not  an  important  step  in  a  general  process  of  development. 
It  was  never  completed.  In  the  farther  south  some  re- 
markable modifications  of  Gothic  art  are  to  be  found, 
dating  from  this  epoch ;  at  Narbonne  a  choir  of  immense 
size  and  great  richness  was  built  before  1350;  S.  Cecile, 
the  cathedral  at  Albi,  a  fortified  church  of  the  most  un- 
usual and  surprising  character,  has  all  its  interior  of  a 
bold  and  strikins:  Gothic  construction,  while  its  exterior 
is  almost  that  of  a  feudal  fortress  of  fed  brick.  Instead 
of  such  an  exterior  as  that  shown  in  Plate  III.,  in  which 
the  clear-story  wall  rises  above  the  broad  roofs  of  aisles 
and  chapels  and  is  surrounded  by  the  elaborate  belt  of 
flying  buttresses,  buttress-piers  and  pinnacles,  the  external 
wall  of  Albi  rises  straight  from  its  foundations,  one  hun- 
dred and  sixty  feet  at  the  lowest  point  of  clear  vertical 
height.  Within  this  great  wall,  broken  only  by  slightly 
rounded  projections  and  pierced  by  very  narrow  windows, 
there  is  a  broad  nave  flanked  by  chapels  in  two  stories. 
The  cathedral  of  S.  Nazaire  at  Carcassonne,  of  the  same 
epoch,  nearly  repeats  the  forms  of  the  northern  vaulting,  but 
with  this  peculiarity,  that  the  aisles  are  brought  to  the  same 
height  as  the  nave.  It  may  be  thought  that  this  system  of 
building  was  intended  chiefly  to  admit  more  light  into  the 
church,  or  that  it  was  desirable  to  provide  one  uniform 
flat  roof  intended  to  serve  as  a  platform  for  machines  of 
war;  for  the  cite  of  Carcassonne  is  nothing  but  a  fortress, 
and  the  cathedral  stands  within  fifty  feet  of  the  ramparts, 
in  a  place  liable  to  attack.^     Figure  145  shows  part  of  the 

^  The  present  roof  of  the  choir  and  transepts  is  built  up  above  the  vaults  in  a 
slight  inclination,  and  is  tiled,  but  it  is  very  probable  that  it  was  intended  to 


Sec.  I] 


FRANCE 


265 


eastern  face  of  the  cathedral  of  Carcassonne,  including  the 
chancel,  and  it  will  be  seen  from  this  how  the  fourteenth- 
century  workmen  undertook  the  task  of  building  a  great 


Fig.  145.     Carcassonne,  France:  Cathedral  of  S.  Nazaire.     About  1320  A.D. 


form  a  flat  platform,  flagged  with  stone,  for  the  placing  of  engines  of  war  in  case 
of  siege ;  indeed,  the  west  end  is  marked  by  a  strong  crenellated  wall.  The 
cathedrals  of  Narbonne  and  B^ziers  and  the  church  of  Les  Saintes  Maries  near 
Aries  are  strongly  fortified. 


266  WESTERN   EUROPE,    1300  TO    1420   A.D.  [Chap.  VI 

hall  with  pillars  to  support  its  vaulted  roof,  but  without 
any  difference  in  height  between  nave  and  aisles.  We 
have  already  seen  in  the  case  of  the  Sainte  Chapelle 
of  Paris  how  the  thirteenth-century  workmen  composed 
the  exterior  of  a  vaulted  church  without  low  aisles  and 
therefore  without  flying  buttresses.  The  Carcassonne 
church  gives  us  the  same  system  carried  out  on  a  larger 
scale  and  in  the  more  developed  style  of  eighty  years 
later ;  for,  when  the  aisle  is  as  high  or  about  as  high  as 
the  nave,  the  thrust  of  the  nave  vault  is  taken  up  by  the 
aisle  vault  and  it  is  the  latter  alone  which  needs  to  be  but- 
tressed outside.  It  is  rather  noticeable  that  not  only  have 
the  slender  uprights  of  the  great  windows,  the  mullions 
between  the  lights,  been  reduced  to  almost  incredible 
tenuity,  —  six  inches  in  width  and  thirteen  in  depth  for  a 
clear  vertical  height  of  over  thirty  feet,  —  but  the  window 
jamb  with  its  mouldings  has  come  down  almost  to 
nothing.  It  will  seem  to  most  lovers  of  Gothic  architect- 
ure that  a  great  deal  is  lost  in  losing  the  concentric 
mouldings  which  follow  one  another,  ring  beyond  ring, 
and  draw  their  delicate  lines  of  shade  and  shadow  around 
the  window-heads  of  the  Sainte  Chapelle  (Figs.  122,  124). 
The  reason  for  the  change  is  of  course  the  complete  dis- 
appearance of  the  wall  from  the  matured  Gothic  architect- 
ure. The  triangular  spandrels  above  the  window  arches 
being  now  the  exterior  face  of  the  solid  parts  of  the  vault- 
ing, and  there  being  no  wall  below  them  other  than  the 
sheet  of  window  sash  held  in  ligrht  framework  of  stone 
tracery,  it  was  natural  to  set  this  sheet  of  glass,  lead  sash, 
iron  stay-bars,  and  stone  rods  well  toward  the  exterior  face 


Fig.  146.     Reims,  France  :  Cathedral.     Window  of  nave.     About  1 240  A. D. 


268  WESTERN   EUROPE,    1300  TO    1420  A.D.  [Chap.  \T 

of  the  stone  spandrels  above  mentioned.  There  was  then 
only  the  thickness  of  a  few  inches  in-and-out,  and  there 
was  practically  no  width  at  all  —  no  wall  space  whatever, 
except  at  top  above  the  pointed  arch  —  where  mouldings 
could  be  cut.  The  window  itself  filled  all  the  space  be- 
'tween  two  buttresses,  and  the  small  mouldings  that  re- 
mained must  be  looked  upon  as  part  of  a  constructional 
necessity  rather  than  as  a  relic  of  the  thirteenth-century 
design. 

We  must  here  speak  of  the  Gothic  window  tracery,  for 
although  this  was  but  a  detail  of  minor  importance  in  the 
estimation  of  the  artists  who  conceived  it  first  and  those 
who  developed  it,  —  their  minds  being  fixed  on  construc- 
tion first,  proportion  second,  and  sculpture  third,  —  it  has 
received  a  factitious  importance  in  modern  thought  as 
being  the  one  part  of  Gothic  ornamentation  that  could  be 
accurately  copied.  The  general  theory  of  Gothic  window 
tracery  is  the  division  of  a  large  window  by  vertical 
uprights  which  we  call  mullions,  and  the  carrying  of  these 
mullions,  as  they  approach  from  below  the  spring  of  the 
arch,  into  patterns  which  shall  fill  more  or  less  gracefully 
the  pointed  head  of  the  window.  Perhaps  the  simplest 
form  is  the  one  shown  in  Fig.  146,  and  the  natural  elabora- 
tion in  case  of  a  larger  window  is  that  shown  in  Fig.  147. 
When  the  window  is  of  such  width  that  three  divisions  are 
better  than  two  or  four,  some  such  arrangement  suggests 
itself  as  that  in  the  diagram.  Fig.  148.  Another  plan  is 
that  shown  in  Fig.  149,  where  an  equilateral  triangle  is 
arranged  beneath  the  head  of  the  window  arch,  and  the 
central  light  between   the   mullions  has  its   arched   head 


Sec.  I] 


FRANCE 


269 


lowered  to  meet  the  large  triangle.  Within  these  larger 
divisions  of  the  window  space  smaller  subdivisions  were 
freely  inserted,  and  these  in  turn  are  varied  and  modified 
by  cusps,  as  they  are  called.     One  set  of  mouldings  is  used 


Fig.  147.     Paris:  Cathedral  of  Notre  Dame.     Window  of  a  chapel.     About  1320  a.d. 


for  the  largest  stone  bars  of  the  tracery  such  as  the 
mullions  and  the  arches  that  spring  from  them ;  a  part  of 
this  set  of  mouldings  is  used  for  the  next  smaller  set  of 
window  bars,  and  so  on,  the  cusps  having  the  simplest 
section.     The   system   of   combination  of   the  mouldings 


2/0 


WESTERN   EUROPE,    1300  TO    1420   A.D. 


[Chap.  VI 


forming  these  tracery  bars  is  not  very  elaborate.  The  full 
group  of  mouldings  is  used  in  the  principal  parts  of  the 
tracery;  that  is,  the  two  arched  heads  of  the  main  divisions 


Fig.  148.     Troyes,  France :  S.  Urbain.     Diagram  of  a  window.     About  1260  a.d. 


Sec.  I]  FRANCE  2/1 

and  the  large  circle  which  rests  upon  them  and  unites  with 
them  (see  Fig.  147),  while  the  secondary  bar  with  a  smaller 
cove  generates  the  four  subordinate  arches  and  these  only, 
and  the  minor  bar,  consisting  only  of  a  flat  and  two  coves, 
generates  the  cusps.  This  systematic  use  of  the  mouldings 
is  hardly  recognized  until  the  fourteenth  century;  thus 
in  Fig.  146  the  shaded  sections  of  the  tracery  bars,  if 
compared  with  the  similar  sections  in  Fig.  149,  will  be 
seen  to  be  much  less  carefully  organized.  The  beauti- 
ful traceries  of  the  second  half  of  the  thirteenth  century 
are  generally  built  without  any  such  logical  arrangement, 
but  inasmuch  as  the  stone  tracery  of  large  windows 
is  a  perishable  part  of  a  building,  it  is  apt  to  be  of 
later  date  than  the  surrounding  masonry,  and  but  little 
remains  of  early  date.  The  Germans  developed  this  geo- 
metrical laying  out  of  the  tracery  with  great  enjoyment, 
and  their  fourteenth-century  churches  treat  it  with  great 
respect ;  in  fact,  it  makes  up  a  far  larger  part  of  the  decora- 
tive scheme  of  the  Germans  than  of  the  French  or  English 
architects.  The  reader  may  consider  in  connection  with 
this  the  pierced  spires  of  Freiburg,  Thann,  and  Cologne. 
The  windows  which  held  this  elaborate  tracery  were 
commonly  blunter  in  the  pointed  arch  which  closes  them 
than  the  windows  of  the  thirteenth  century.  This  comes 
of  the  curves  of  the  vaults,  to  which  we  have  repeatedly 
said  these  great  windows  closely  conform.  If  an  interior 
of  the  thirteenth  century  be  studied,  it  will  commonly  be 
found  that,  beneath  a  vault  whose  wall-arch  takes  a  more 
obtuse  form,  there  will  be  opened  a  window  with  an  equi- 
lateral arch,  that  is  to  say  one  whose  centres  are  at  the 


Fig.  149.     Carcassonne,  France :  Cathedral  of  S.  Nazaire.     Window  of  transept. 

About  1250  A.D. 


Sec.  I]  FRANCE  2/3 

point  of  tangency  of  the  arch-curve  with  the  vertical 
Hne  of  the  jamb.  This  pecuHarity  disappears  of  course 
when  the  window  is  made  to  occupy  the  whole  space 
beneath  and  within  the  wall-arch  of  the  vault. 

The  great  rose-windows  of  the  thirteenth  century  find 
few  copies  in  the  fourteenth ;  the  great  churches  were 
built,  and  though  here  and  there  a  rose-window  may  have 
had  to  be  remade,  such  a  one  was  commonly  rebuilt  again 
in  the  fifteenth  century.  The  tracery  of  the  rose-windows 
is  nearly  the  same  as  that  of  the  pointed  windows,  in  its 
system  of  composition  and  in  the  way  its  mouldings  pass 
into,  and  grow  out  of,  each  other.  The  great  rose  in  the 
north  transept  of  Rouen  Cathedral  is  a  work  of  the  early 
years  of  the  fourteenth  century,  and  it  consists  of  ten 
pointed  window-heads,  which  radiate  their  arches  outward, 
and  with  small  triangles  filling  the  spandrels  of  these 
arches.  It  is  too  formal,  too  unyielding  as  a  design  not 
to  seem  insufficient  to  the  admirable  artists  who  followed 
at  a  later  and  more  peaceful  time,  and  the  change  in  the 
fifteenth  century  to  the  flowing  tracery  of  that  time  is 
accounted  for  by  the  too  mechanical  accuracy  of  this 
earlier  work.  Immediately  below  this  rose-window  is  a 
pierced  gable  rising  above  the  great  doorway;  this  gable 
is  filled  with  tracery  of  which  the  upper  part  is  entirely 
open  and  shows  beyond  it  the  windows  and  the  broad 
gallery  beneath  the  rose-window.  Figure  150  gives  the 
design  of  this  gable.  These  pierced  gables,  though  not 
altogether  peculiar  to  the  fourteenth  century,  are  very 
characteristic  of  that  time. 

Of    the   epoch    now    under    consideration,    1 300-1420, 


Fig.  150.     Rouen,  France:    Cathedral.     Gable  over  door  of  north  transept.     About 

1340  A.D. 


Sec.  I]  FRANCE  275 

many  more  civic  buildings  exist  than  of  the  thirteenth 
century.  During  the  first  years  of  the  fourteenth  cen- 
tury, —  years  of  prosperity  under  sagacious  kings,  —  there 
was  much  building;  and  as  churches  had  been  built  in 
such  abundance  a  few  years  earlier,  it  was  dwellings  and 
halls  of  assembly  that  were  now  in  demand.  At  a  later 
time,  under  Charles  V.  (1364-80),  building  was  continued 
with  some  vigour  in  the  towns,  and  under  the  unhappy 
Charles  VI.  the  great  princes  of  his  court  vied  with  one 
another  in  the  erection  of  strong  castles.  We  have  then 
such  buildings  as  the  splendid  hospital  at  Tonnerre,  dat- 
ing from  about  1305,  whose  great  hall,  fifty-eight  feet 
wide,  roofed  with  timber  in  one  span,  is  most  interesting 
for  the  comparison  it  makes  possible  with  the  splendid 
English  timber  roofs  of  the  same  epoch.  In  these  latter 
there  is  an  attempt  to  avoid  the  usual  and  obvious  con- 
struction by  means  of  a  tie-beam,  and  to  substitute  an 
elaborate  design  of  collar-beams  and  struts,  using  a  great 
deal  of  timber,  and  following  lines  not  so  much  construc- 
tional as  decorative.  Compare  what  is  said  of  the  roof 
of  Westminster  Hall  (p.  306).  In  the  French  example 
a  tie-beam  stretches  from  wall  to  wall,  and  is  held  up  in 
the  middle  by  a  "  king-post " ;  the  ceiling  is  then  semi- 
cylindrical,  and  consists  of  wainscoting  of  the  simplest 
kind  with  wooden  ribs,  within  which  nothing  of  the  timber 
work  shows  except  the  two  principal  pieces  named  above. 
There  is  a  close  affiliation  between  this  spacious  room, 
whose  architectural  effect  is  got  from  size  and  proportion 
mainly,  and  the  great  interiors  of  Gothic  churches  where 
the  volume  of  enclosed  space  is  so  apparently  out  of  pro- 


276  WESTERN  EUROPE,  1300  TO   1420  A.D.  [Chap.  VI 

portion  to  the  amount  of  solid  material  used  to  enclose 
it.  A  more  decorative  hall  is  the  splendid  one  at  Poitiers, 
the  one  remaining  building  of  the  palace  of  the  old  lords 
of  Poitou.  This  hall  is  famous  for  its  chimneys,  the 
three  great  fireplaces  which  occupy  one  end  of  the  hall, 
and  their  flues  and  chimney-tops,  which  combine  strangely 
with  the  window  in  the  gable.  The  greatest  achievement 
of  the  time  in  the  way  of  architecture,  half  domestic  and 
half  civic,  is  the  palace  of  the  popes  at  Avignon,  a  gigan- 
tic structure,  with  many  great  halls,  and  the  lodgings  for 
a  multitude  of  persons,  arranged  in  a  stately  way  around 
two  great  courts,  and  enclosed  within  fortified  walls  rising 
high  above  the  streets  of  the  town  and  the  scarped  rock 
upon  which  they  are  built.  This  is  at  once  a  fortress  of 
the  first  class  and  a  stately  dwelling.  The  palace  con- 
tains a  great  many  curious  pieces  of  vaulting;  but  it  is 
to  be  noticed,  as  was  suggested  in  the  preceding  chapter, 
that  it  is  no  longer  strictly  Gothic  construction  when  the 
vaults  are  imprisoned  within  the  ponderous  walls  of  a 
mediaeval  fortress.  As  it  has  been  said  of  the  castles 
(p.  213),  and  as  is  true  of  the  cathedral  at  Albi,  that  the 
vaulting  might  more  fittingly  be  vaults  of  Roman  construc- 
tion than  Gothic  rib-vaults,  so  massive  are  the  containing 
walls,  so  it  may  be  said  of  the  vaulted  halls  in  the  Popes' 
Palace,  the  castle  at  Pierrefonds,  and  similar  structures, 
that  that  is  not  Gothic  construction  which  needs  no 
counterpoise,  but  is  held  in  place  by  fifteen-foot  walls. 

Small  houses  of  the  townspeople  are  not  so  nearly 
unknown  for  this  period  as  for  the  thirteenth  century, 
though  most  of  them  have  disappeared.     Figure  151  gives 


Fig.  ici.     Chateaudun,  France :  House.     About  1320  a.d. 


278  WESTERN  EUROPE,   1300  TO   1420  A.D.  [Chap.  VI 

the   front   of   one    drawn   by   Viollet-le-Duc,   in    1841,   at 
Chateaudun,  near  Chartres. 

Decorative  timber  work  was  extremely  common  through- 
out the  northern  part  of  what  is  now  France;  and  this 
system  of  building  was  used  in  small  churches  and  other 
ecclesiastical  and  civic  buildings  as  well  as  in  dwellings. 
One  chapel  remains  in  Troyes,  much  added  to  in  later 
times,  but  still  perfectly  recognizable.  A  plan  and  section 
of  it  have  been  given  by  Viollet-le-Duc,  and  a  still  fuller 
rendering  is  in  the  Encyclopedie  d' Architecture.  Figure 
152  gives  a  detail  of  its  construction. 

II 

In  Spain  the  fourteenth  century  begins  with  a  marked 
advance  in  elaborate  richness  of  style.  One  of  the  first 
buildings  of  importance  built  in  this  century  was  the  choir 
of  Gerona  Cathedral  with  its  aisles ;  but  this  is,  in  gen- 
eral style,  a  thirteenth-century  interior.  The  transept  of 
the  cathedral  of  Barcelona  was  built  at  about  the  same 
time,  and  this  involved  the  construction  of  the  admirably 
simple  octagon,  which  should  be  compared  with  the  more 
elaborate  octagon  at  Ely,  for  which  see  p.  303.  The  west 
front  of  Tarragona  Cathedral  was  never  carried  above  the 
porch,  except  that  a  fine  rose-window  was  built  and  its 
frame  of  deeply  recessed  mouldings  was  left  projecting 
from  the  stone  wall  which  holds  it,  with  the  evident  inten- 
tion of  building  around  it  with  screen-work  and  tracery. 
Each  of  these  parts  of  the  front,  both  porch  and  rose- 
window,  are  remarkable  for  the  very  free  use  of  mouldings 


Sec.  II] 


PROVINCES,  N.  AND    S.  OF   FRANCE 


279 


in  large  groups,  so  arranged  as  to  give  broad  belts  of  deli- 
cate combinations  of  shade  and  shadow.  There  is  some- 
thing English  rather  than  French  in  the  feeling  shown 
here,  except  that  the  mouldings  are  in  larger  groups  than 
the  English  builders  generally  employed. 


Fig.  152.     Troyes,  France :  Chapel  of  S.  Gilles.     Detail  of  framing.     1360  A.D. 

The  most  important  architectural  work  of  the  epoch 
in  Spain,  at  least  for  the  purpose  of  our  enquiry,  is  that 
connected  with  the  cathedral  of  Toledo ;  viz.,  the  re- 
markable choir  with  its  two  aisles,  of  which  the  plan  is 
given  in  Fig.  153.     It  will  be  seen  that  the  difficulty  found 


280 


WESTERN   EUROPE,  1300  TO    1420  A.D. 


[Chap.  VI 


in  vaulting  the  compartments  of  a  rounding  aisle  (see  pp. 
156  and  196)  is  got  over  by  alternating  triangular  compart- 
ments with  those  of  rectangular   shape.     This  had  been 


J I L 


J I 


Fig,  153,    Toledo,  Spain:  Cathedral.     Choir  and  aisles.     Beginning  of  fourteenth 

century.     Plan. 

tried  at  Le  Mans  at  a  much  earlier  date,  and  even  in 
the  rude  aisle  of  the  chapel  at  Aix-la-Chapelle  (see  Fig. 
70).  The  effect  of  the  interior  of  this  great  east  end 
cannot  be  shown  in  any  one  illustration;    Fig.  154  gives  a 


Sec.  II] 


PROVINCES,  N.  AND   S.  OF   FRANCE 


281 


small  portion  of  the  outer  and  lower  aisle  which  shows  the 
alternation  of  square  and  triangular  compartments.  The 
vaulting  of  the  great  nave    and    the  clear-story  windows 


Fig.  154.     Toledo,  Spain  :  Cathedral.     Outer  aisle  of  choir.    View.    Compare  Fig.  153. 

below  it  are  evidently  of  the  earlier  part  of  the  century ; 
and  the  remarkable  screen  which  encloses  the  choir,  a 
splendid  composition  of  niches  and  canopies,  most  of  them 


282  WESTERN  EUROPE,  1300  TO   1420  A.D.  [Chap.  VI 

having  their  statues  still  in  place,  are  of  twenty  or  thirty 
years  later.  The  door  of  entrance  to  the  north  transept 
is  probably  also  fourteenth-century  work,  as  well  as  the 
extremely  remarkable  door  leading  into  the  cloister.  In 
this  curious  composition,  all  the  sculpture  is  subordinated 
to  the  architectural  forms  in  a  very  unusual  way,  as  if  the 
designer  had  been  afraid  of  interfering  with  the  lines  of 
his  splayed  jambs.  Moreover,  the  carving  on  the  flat  sur- 
faces is  all  heraldic:  the  lion  of  Leon  and  the  castle  of 
Castile  alternating,  except  that  the  four  shields  on  the 
lintel  at  the  sides  carry  rampant  lions  only,  and  the  central 
shield  the  quartered  coat  of  the  united  kingdoms.  Except 
for  the  style  of  the  figure  sculpture,  such  as  the  Madonna 
on  the  trumeau,  and  the  singular  group  beneath  her  feet, 
representing  an  entombment,  this  is  an  Italian  doorway. 
It  is  a  problem  which  it  would  be  interesting  to  solve, 
whence  came  the  strong  Italian  influence  not  often  found 
out  of  Italy  at  this  epoch. 

In  two  important  churches  at  Barcelona  is  to  be  found 
a  plan  so  closely  allied  to  that  of  Albi  (see  p.  264)  that  the 
resemblance  cannot  be  thought  accidental.  S.  Maria  del 
Pi  has  almost  exactly  the  same  plan  as  Albi,  but  with  eight 
bays  in  length  instead  of  twelve ;  there  are  no  aisles,  the 
vaulting  of  the  nave  is  maintained  by  solid  buttress-walls 
which  divide  shallow  chapels,  and  a  solid  and  unbroken 
wall  surrounds  the  whole,  except  that  the  apse  has  outside 
buttresses.  S.  Maria  del  Mar  is  much  larger  and  has 
aisles  as  well  as  a  nave ;  the  aisle-vaults  are  sustained  by 
buttress-walls  which  separate  chapels,  and  the  same  sys- 
tem is  carried  around  the  apse,  so  that  the  bounding  wall 


Sec.  II] 


PROVINCES,  N.  AND   S.  OF   FRANCE 


283 


is  everywhere  unbroken.  These  Spanish  towns  are  so 
near  to  Albi  that  their  choosing  that  unusual  type  is  not 
surprising.  What  was  a  need  of  fortification  in  the  orig- 
inal became  in  the  copies  a  grand  uniformity  of  exterior 
design,  not  unpleasing  to  the  southern  spirit. 

In  French  Flanders,  the  cathedral  of  Tournai,  whose 
splendid  Romanesque  nave  and  towers  have  been  described 
above  (p.  177),  has  a  beautiful  fourteenth-century  choir. 
Boldness  of  construction  was  carried  to  an  extreme  in 
this    choir,    for    it 


record    that    the 


IS    on 
pillars 


had  to  be  strengthened 
after  the  completion  of 
the  vaults.  In  its  present 
condition  it  is  a  master- 
piece of  delicacy  and 
grace.  The  nave  of  S. 
Sauveur  of  Bruges  and 
the  nave  of  the  cathedral 
at  Brussels  are  of  this  epoch, 
choir  of  Tournai    in  beauty. 


Fig.  155.    Vilvorde,  Belgium :  Church, 
teenth  century.     Plan. 


Four- 


but  hardly  vie  with  the 
The  village  of  Vilvorde, 
near  Brussels,  has  a  characteristic  parish  church  of  which 
the  plan  is  given  in  Fig.  155.  The  section  through  the 
nave  and  aisles  (Fig.  156)  shows  that  there  is  no  attempt 
to  get  light  through  clear-story  windows:  the  short  nave 
is  lighted  from  the  west  end  and  the  transepts.  The  choir, 
having  no  aisles,  is  treated  inside  and  out  nearly  as  the 
Sainte  Chapelle  at  Paris  is  treated  if  the  upper  chapel 
alone  is  considered.  The  largest,  and  in  that  sense  the 
most  important  church  of  the  time,  is  Antwerp  Cathedral. 


284 


WESTERN   EUROPE,   1300  TO    1420  A.D. 


[Chap.  VI 


This  has  three  aisles  on  either  side  of  the  nave ;  and,  as 
the  church  is  singularly  unencumbered  by  screens  and 
enclosures,  it  affords  one  of  the  largest  unbroken  interiors 
in  Europe.     Its  extreme  length  is  not  unexampled  —  about 


25 


1     I     I     I     I     I 


50 

J 


Fig.  156.     Vilvorde,  Belgium:  Church.     Section  across  nave  and  aisles  (see  Fig.  155). 

325  feet;  but  its  width  of  i6o  feet  seems  enormous,  in 
spite  of  the  six  rows  of  slender  piers  which  support  the 
vaulted  ceiling.  The  architectural  design  of  this  great  in- 
terior is  not  attractive.  The  vaulting,  indeed,  is  simple  and 
constructional:  but  the  pillars  without  capitals  and  the 
large  wall-spaces  with  their  formal  panelling  are  cold   in 


Sec.  II] 


PROVINCES,  N.  AND   S.  OF   FRANCE 


285 


effect.  Figure  157  partly  shows  the  curious  arrangement 
of  the  external  roofing.  The  clear-story  windows  are  left 
unobstructed  and  are  made  enormously  large,  and  to  allow 
of  this  the  aisle-roofs  are  built  with  a  double  pitch,  so  that 
the  whole  clear-story  wall  is  left  free.  This  peculiarity  is 
found  in  several  Flemish  churches,  but  in  Antwerp  Cathe- 


I  I  I 


Fig.  157.     Antwerp,  Belgium :  Cathedral.     About  1360  to  1380  A.  d.     Section  across 

nave  and  aisles. 

dral  alone  it  is  carried  farther,  the  aisle-roof  being  divided 
into  detached  hipped  roofs,  one  to  each  bay.  In  the  choir 
the  same  result  is  obtained  by  means  of  a  flat  masonry 
floor  which  covers  the  vaulting  of  aisles  and  chapels.  The 
church  of  Notre  Dame  de  la  Chapelle  and  Notre  Dame 
des  Victoires,  in  the  same  city,  have  aisle-roofs  hipped  in 
one  frame. 


286  WESTERN  EUROPE,  1300  TO   1420  A.D.  [Chap.  \T 

III 

The  church  of  S.  Katherine  at  Oppenheim  near  May- 
ence  contains  within  itself  a  characteristic  specimen  of 
German  Gothic  of  the  fourteenth  century.  The  flying 
buttress  is  not  introduced  on  the  north  side  of  the  choir, 
where  a  great  roof  covers  nave  and  aisle  alike,  but  on  the 
south  side  of  the  choir  the  construction  includes  the  use 
of  flying  buttresses  of  considerable  span.  The  bays  of  this 
part  of  the  church  are  of  great  width ;  and,  as  neither  the 
aisle  nor  the  clear-story  is  very  high,  some  very  curious 
results  are  visible  in  each.  In  the  aisle  the  enormous 
windows,  seven  lights  wide  and  rather  sharp  in  the  arch 
for  the  epoch,  are  reduced  to  a  vertical  impost  of  less  than 
one-third  the  total  height  of  the  window.  In  the  clear- 
story, on  the  other  hand,  the  windows  are  narrowed  to  four 
lights,  with  the  result  that  a  large  amount  of  wall  surface 
is  built  on  both  sides  of  these  windows,  and  that  this  in 
turn  is  disguised  and  hidden,  as  it  were,  behind  a  buttress 
of  enormous  width.  To  make  these  clear-story  windows 
still  higher  and  sharper  in  effect,  very  steep  ornamental 
gables  have  been  built  on  their  archivolts,  which  archi- 
volts  are  therefore  of  necessity  very  broad,  projecting  far 
beyond  the  wall,  and  having  huge  hood-mouldings  orna- 
mented with  Gothic  foliage  as  if  for  a  church  porch. 
Figure  158  gives  three  bays  of  the  south  flank  of  the 
choir.  The  reader  should  notice  the  extreme  clumsi- 
ness of  the  linear  design ;  it  seems  as  if  all  the 
charm  of  the  fourteenth-century  tracery  were  deliberately 
ignored.      Still   more   formal,  but   with    apparently  more 


o             S            fO           /$          20          Z5 
t""»  I \ I I I 

Fig.  158.     Oppenheim,  Germany:  Church  of  S.  Katherine,  part  of  south  flank  of  nave. 
First  half  of  fourteenth  century. 


288  WESTERN  EUROPE,  1300  TO   1420  A.D.  [Chap.  VI 

meaning  in  the  design,  is  the  tracery  which  forms  the 
great  rose-window  of  S.  Lorenz  of  Nuremberg.  This 
window  is  surrounded  by  a  carved  border  nearly  as  wide 
as  the  diameter  of  the  opening  and  imitating  a  series  of 
canopies  as  if  of  niches  for  statues,  a  fantastic  and  un- 
pleasing  addition  to  the  window  which  must  pass  for 
one  more  attempt  at  a  novel  treatment  of  Gothic  forms, 
most  of  which  attempts  were  destined  to  failure.  The 
interior  of  S.  Lorenz  is  unusual  in  another  way;  all 
the  space  above  the  nave-arches  up  to  the  very  sills  of 
the  clear-story  windows  is  a  smooth  stone  wall,  giving 
perhaps  the  plainest  Gothic  interior  known.  A  curious 
feature  of  this  interior  is  the  round  moulded  capital  which 
is  so  common  in  England,  and  which  is  generally  con- 
sidered as  an  English  peculiarity.  Another  church  in 
Nuremberg,  also  of  the  fourteenth  century,  is  the  Church 
of  Our  Lady  (Frauenkirche).  It  is  a  small  church  with- 
out aisles,  with  tall  windows  with  sharp-pointed  arches  and 
simple  tracery.  The  curious  stepped  gable  of  the  west 
front  is  evidently  later  and  replaces  in  part  a  tower, 
which  seems  to  have  existed  where  now  is  the  late 
Gothic  porch.  The  most  important  Gothic  church  in 
Nuremberg,  and  perhaps  the  best  interior  of  characteristic 
German  Gothic  that  exists,  is  the  eastern  choir  of  the 
church  of  S.  Sebaldus  (see  Fig.  159).  This  church  has 
a  west  end  and  towers  of  an  earlier  date ;  the  eastern 
choir  is  a  three-aisled  structure,  with  aisles  and  nave  of 
equal  height  and  nearly  equal  breadth.  The  high  slen- 
der pillars  have  no  capitals,  and  the  ribs  of  the  vaulting 
spring  from  the  same  level,  so  that  the  vaultino^  of   the 


Sec.  Ill] 


GERMANY 


289 


aisles  is  slightly  more  acute  than  that  of  the  nave.     High 
windows  are  arranged  between   the  buttresses ;    and    this 


Fig.  159.     Nuremberg,  Germany:  Church  of  S.  Sebaldus.     East  end.     About  1375  ^•^* 

splendid  hall  with  a  continuous  ceiling,  supported  by 
slender  pillars  and  with  very  lofty  windows,  should  be 
compared  with  the  cathedral  at  Carcassonne  (see  above, 


2qo  WESTERN  EUROPE,  1300  TO   1420  A.D.  [Chap.  VI 

pp.  264-5).  '^^^  essential  difference  between  them  is 
that  the  windows  of  the  German  church  are  narrow, 
occupying  less  than  half  the  space  between  the  but- 
tresses, so  that  there  is  on  either  side  a  piece  of  flat 
wall  between  the  window-jamb  and  the  buttress.  Such 
pieces  of  flat  wall  are  not  allowed  for  in  the  original 
ecclesiastical  Gothic,  —  that  of  France :  they  are  not  a 
part  of  the  style ;  and  accordingly  the  builders  of  S. 
Sebaldus'  church  have  felt  that  they  needed  to  be 
adorned  with  canopies  and  arcading.  It  is  a  beautiful 
room  both  inside  and  out,  but  it  offers  one  more  instance 
of  the  singular  reluctance  shown  throughout  eastern  and 
central  Germany  to  adopt  Gothic  architecture  as  it  de- 
veloped itself  in  France,  and  as  it  was  readily  taken 
over  by  England  and  Spain  and  sometimes  by  the 
Rhine  towns.  At  Erfurt,  the  nave  and  the  aisles  of  the 
cathedral  form  a  similar  hall ;  nave  and  aisles  of  the  same 
height,  and  presenting  the  very  curious  disposition  that 
the  nave  is  the  narrowest  of  the  three.  Here  the  win- 
dows are  even  smaller  in  proportion  to  the  wall-space 
than  in  the  Nuremberg  church,  and  the  buttresses  also 
smaller.  In  fact,  for  the  very  great  span  of  the  aisle- 
vaults  the  buttresses  appear  to  be  very  insufUcient  (see 
Fig.  160),  and  it  would  appear  that  the  wall  adjoining 
the  buttress  was  relied  upon  to  assist  them.  It  is  a 
curiously  unskilful,  ill-considered  piece  of  construction ; 
the  church  is  very  dark,  and  one  longs  to  be  allowed 
to  build  sufficient  buttresses  and  then  to  knock  away 
the  wall  between  them  and  attain  the  result  so  easily 
and    naturally   reached    at    Carcassonne.      The    choir   of 


Sec.  Ill] 


GERMANY 


291 


Erfurt,  on  the  other  hand,  is  a  charming  design,  a  sim- 
ple room  without  aisles,  and  with  a  bold  and  skilfully 
designed  vault  worthy  to  rank  with  the  Sainte  Cha- 
pelle  at  Paris.  This  choir  is  the  lofty  and  slender  build- 
ing rising  from  a  huge  vaulted  substructure  so  attractive 
to  travellers  and  so  prominent  in  all  the  views  of  the 
town  (see  Fig.  161).  Its  external  effect  is  much  aided 
by  the   singular  structure  which   is   interposed   between 


Fig.  160.     Erfurt,  Germany:  Cathedral.     Plan.     Choir  1350  to  1355  A.D.     Nave 
much  later.     Choir  and  nave  have  different  axes. 

the  choir  and  the  nave,  an  oblong  mass  of  building 
which  when  clear  of  the  roofs  resolves  itself  into  three 
octagonal  steeples,  the  highest  in  the  middle. 

S.  Stephens,  in  Vienna,  is  a  really  interesting  experi- 
ment; an  attempt  at. modifying  the  Gothic  type  which,  if 
it  did  not  result  in  a  distinct  eastern  European  style  with 
its  own  peculiar  characteristics,  is  so  important  in  itself 
that  it  should  be  minutely  studied.     Figure   162  gives  the 


292 


WESTERN   EUROPE,    1300  TO    1420  A.D. 


[Chap.  VI 


plan  of  this  church,  which  is  of  the  second  half  of  the  four- 
teenth century.     The  nave,  about  forty  feet  from  centre  to 


Fig.  161.     Erfurt,  Germany:  Cathedral.     View  of  choir  (see  Fig.  160). 

centre  of  piers,  is  flanked  by  aisles  of  nearly  its  own  width 
and  also  of  nearly  its  own  height ;  for  while  the  nave  is 


Sec.  Ill] 


GERMANY 


293 


ninety  feet  high,  the  aisles  are  sixty-eight  feet.  With  this 
small  difference  of  height  there  is  of  course  no  attempt  at 
a  clear-story,  and  the  nave-roof  is  not  lighted  directly  ex- 
cept from  the  west  end.  S.  Stephens  is  then  a  hall  with 
columns,  like  the  cathedrals  at  Carcassonne  and  at  Erfurt, 
and  the  church  of  S.  Sebaldus  at  Nuremberg ;  but  having 


/o  o  30  (,0  90      no 

»tl    I    I    I    I    I    I    I    I    I    I    I 

Fig.  162.     Vienna,  Austria :  Cathedral  of  S.  Stephen.     Plan.     The  general  arrange- 
ment is  of  the  second  half  of  the  fourteenth  century. 

the  central  division  crowned  up  as  it  were  just  enough  to 
tell,  when  seen  from  below,  as  a  slight  elevation  for  the 
sake  of  dignity  and  to  defeat  the  natural  tendency  of  such 
a  roof  to  seem  lowest  in  the  middle.  The  interior  is  very 
impressive,  but  not  in  the  usual  sense  of  a  great  Gothic 
church,  long,  high,  and  comparatively  narrow.     It  is  curi- 


294  WESTERN  EUROPE,  1300  TO   1420  A.D.  [Chap.  VI 

ous  that  the  entrances  most  commonly  used  are  in  the 
north  and  south  flank.  Entering  by  one  of  these,  one  has 
no  sense  of  crossing  the  aisle  to  reach  the  nave :  it  is  all  a 
high  and  spacious  hall  of  assembly,  with  only  six  or  eight 
lofty  pillars  to  break  it.  In  like  manner,  the  arrangement 
of  windows,  two  to  each  bay,  and  therefore  each  one  com- 
paratively narrow  and  high,  with  their  pointed  arches 
occupying  but  little  of  their  vertical  height,  helps  the 
effect  of  a  square  flat-roofed  hall  uniformly  ligiited  on 
each  side  from  end  to  end.  This  nave  is  one  of  the  best 
attempts  that  were  ever  made  to  build  in  the  Gothic  style 
without  being  simply  Gothic.  It  is  rare  that  experiments 
of  the  sort  are  so  successful. 

The  beautiful  church  which  serves  as  the  cathedral  of 
Ulm,  with  its  octagonal  belfries  and  spires  flanking  a  lofty 
apse  and  its  unfinished  western  tower,  must  be  taken  as 
a  fourteenth-century  church,  although  not  finished  as  we 
now  see  it  until  a  somewhat  later  time.  In  this  the  Ger- 
man love  for  tracery  takes  the  form  of  a  study  in  vertical 
parts,  large  surfaces  of  the  lower  wall  and  its  huge  but- 
tresses being  divided  up  into  high  and  narrow  panels  by 
slender  mullions  which  form  simple  or  elaborate  tracery 
at  the  tops  of  the  panels,  as  if  a  window  were  in  question. 
Mvich  of  this  tracery  is  indeed  brought  out  so  far  from  the 
wall  of  the  tower  —  the  enormous  buttresses  allowing  of 
this  —  that  it  amounts  to  window  tracery:  the  bars  of 
windows  through  which  are  seen  the  wall  of  the  tower  with 
the  windows  which  it  encloses.  The  buttresses  of  the  north 
and  south  flanks  of  the  church  are  decorated  also  with  panel 
work  divided  by  narrow  and  deep  groups  of  mouldings. 


Sec.  Ill]  GERMANY  295 

The  west  front  of  the  cathedral  of  Strasburg  is  the 
culmination  of  this  system  of  decoration  by  means  of 
slender  mullion-bars  forming  a  semblance  of  window 
tracery.  This  building  seems  to  have  been  finished  as 
far  as  the  platform,  about  216  feet  above  the  pavement 
of  the  square,  in  1365.  The  whole  of  this  west  front 
is  carried  up  to  this  uniform  height  by  the  insertion  of 
a  square  tower-like  structure  between  the  north  and  south 
towers  and  resting  upon  the  porch,  the  massive  piers  of 
which  are  carried  up  in  connection  with  the  towers  them- 
selves, so  as  to  support  this  unusual  third  member  of  the 
western  fagade.  In  this  way  a  platform  nearly  fifty  feet 
wide  and  one  hundred  and  forty  feet  long  is  provided  at 
the  considerable  height  above  mentioned,  and  upon  this 
stands  the  spire  of  the  north  tower,  not  finished  till  1440, 
and  at  the  southern  end  a  small  house  covering  the  land- 
ing from  the  stairs  below ;  for  this  platform  is  a  favourite 
place  of  resort.  Nearly  the  whole  of  the  great  west  front 
and  the  north  and  south  flanks  of  the  towers  are  masked 
by  screens  of  slender  mullions  carrying  tracery  and  cano- 
pies. These  screens  included  between  the  buttresses, 
which  are  narrow  and  are  themselves  decorated  with 
similar  screen  work  and  with  vertical  panelling,  give  this 
part  of  the  church  the  appearance  of  being  enclosed  in 
a  cage.  It  is  only  between  the  towers,  where  the  forty- 
foot  rose-window  is  opened  above  the  central  porch,  that 
this  effect  of  bars  of  a  cage  ceases.  Above  the  rose- 
window  is  a  long  arcade  with  statues,  and  above  that, 
two  simple  fourteenth-century  windows  pierced  in  the 
middle  tower  of  which  we  have  spoken,  so  that  the  real 


296  WESTERN   EUROPE,  1300  TO   1420   A.D.  [Chap.  VI 

towers  of  the  front  are  distinguished  from  the  mass  be- 
tween them  by  this  very  cage  of  tracery.  This  is  the 
more  noticeable  because  it  was  the  designer's  purpose 
evidently  that  his  two  towers  should  carry  very  lofty 
spires,  not  exactly  of  the  same  design  as  the  one  erected, 
but  even  heavier  in  mass  (see  p.  354)  than  the  present 
one.  It  was  therefore  not  his  wish  to  take  away  from 
the  lower  parts  of  his  towers  the  appearance  of  great 
solidity ;  and  strangely  enough  he  was  able  to  retain  that 
appearance  of  great  solidity  in  spite  of  the  tracery  which 
seems  to  disguise  and  conceal  the  massive  walls  behind. 
The  church  is  rightly  criticised  as  insufficient  in  length 
and  importance  for  this  prodigious  frontispiece,  but  the 
westernmost  structure  in  itself  is  of  extraordinary  interest 
and  of  a  kind  of  defiant  beauty,  most  valuable  as  a  con- 
trast to  the  regulated  and  orderly  charm  of  the  structures 
built  under  dominant  French  influence. 


IV 

In  England  the  fourteenth  century  was  a  splendid  time 
for  architecture.  The  wars  that  desolated  the  continent 
had  but  seldom  an  echo  north  of  the  Channel,  and  except 
during  the  years  following  the  appearance  of  the  Black 
Death,  1 349,  the  country  was  peaceful.  Even  the  change 
of  dynasty  of  1 399  caused  but  a  slight  interruption.  The 
building  of  the  cathedrals  was  carried  on  in  the  leisurely 
way  in  which  it  had  begun  in  the  thirteenth  century. 
What  is  called  the  English  Decorated  style  reaches  its 
full  development  during   the  first  years  of   the  century. 


Sec.  IV] 


ENGLAND 


297 


The  celebrated  and  beautiful  central  tower  of  Lincoln 
Cathedral  (Fig.  163)  is  of  13 10;  it  is  square  and  is 
carried  up  directly  from  the  interior,  its  walls  resting 
upon  the  great  arches  at  the 
crossing  of  the  nave  and  the 
western  transept.  A  character- 
istic of  the  epoch  is  the  rapid 
increase  in  the  number  and  size 
of  traceried  windows ;  that  is  to 
say,  of  large  windows  divided 
into  three,  four,  five,  or  more 
"  lights,"  as  they  are  called,  or 
subdivisions.  The  mullions  sep- 
arating these  lights  form  the 
ornamental  tracery  in  the  win- 
dow head.  The  examples  given 
in  the  previous  section  (Figs.  146 
to  149)  illustrate  these  windows 
with  geometrical  tracery ;  that 
shown  in  Fig.  147  having  the 
closest  resemblance  to  the  Eng- 
lish windows  now  under  con- 
sideration. There  is,  however, 
one  peculiarity  which  causes  a 
great   difference    in    appearance   fig.  163.  Lincoln. England:  Cathe- 

o  ^c  dral.     Central  tower.     1310  A.D. 

between    the    French    and    the 

English  examples.  The  English  mullions  and  tracery  bars 
are  much  broader,  and  are  less  deep  in  the  direction  of  the 
thickness  of  the  walls  than  the  French  examples.  Thus 
the  great  English  windows  of  about    1300,  such   as  that 


298  WESTERN   EUROPE,    1300  TO    1420  A.D.  [Chai>.  VI 

of  Bloxham,  Oxfordshire,  and  the  clear-story  of  the  nave 
of  Lincoln  Cathedral,  are  seen  to  be  closely  allied,  by  the 
breadth  of  their  stone  dividing-bars,  to  those  English 
windows  of  an  earlier  period  which  were  rather  groups 
of  separate  openings  than  large  openings  subdivided. 
There  are,  however,  many  exceptions  to  this  general  rule. 
The  great  west  window  of  Lichfield  Cathedral,  though 
not  continental  in  design,  has  deep  and  narrow  tracery 
bars,  and  the  splendid  east  window  of  Lincoln,  eight 
lights  wide,  and  exquisitely  organized  with  its  parts  all 
duly  subordinated,  is  one  of  the  many  details  in  which 
this  cathedral  approaches  the  more  systematic  Gothic  of 
the  French  Royal  Domain.  With  1320  also  begins  what 
the  English  writers  have  called  Flowing  Tracery,  such  as 
that  of  the  nave  windows  of  Beverley  Minster  (Fig.  164), 
and  in  the  adoption  of  these  wavy  and  flame-like  forms, 
the  English  architects  were  certainly  in  advance  of  those 
of  the  continent  (see  above,  p.  273).  Indeed,  if  the  dates 
given  to  some  of  the  Flowing  Tracery  windows  be  correct, 
these  windows  precede  by  nearly  a  century  the  flamboyant 
tracery,  which  alone  can  be  compared  with  them.  Flow- 
ing Tracery  reaches  perhaps  its  culmination  in  the  great 
and  beautiful  east  window  of  Carlisle  Cathedral,  nearly 
twenty-seven  feet  wide  and  divided  into  nine  lights. 
Figure  164  A  gives  this  splendid  window,  which,  however, 
finds  a  worthy  rival  in  the  west  window  of  York  Minster, 
known  to  have  been  completed  and  glazed  in  1338. 

It  is  curious  to  note  how  suddenly  the  waving  forms  of 
this  graceful  English  invention  are  deserted  for  another 
and  equally  original  English  style,  the  Perpendicular  Trac- 


Fig.  164.     Beverley,  England :   the  Minster.      One  bay  of  the  nave.      About  1330  A. D. 


300  WESTERN  EUROPE,    13CX)  TO   1420  A.D.  [Chap.  VI 

ery,  which  begins  as  early  as  1360  (see  Figs.  165,  189,  and 
189  A).  The  great  east  window  of  Gloucester  was  prob- 
ably built  at  the  same  time  with  the  choir  or  immediately 
afterward,  and  this  choir  is  known  to  have  been  finished 
about  1350.  In  this  instance  the  window  fills  the  whole 
space  beneath  and  within  the  vault,  but  as  it  is  curiously 
adapted  to  a  slightly  polygonal  east  end,  it  may  be  con- 


FlG.  164A.     Carlisle,  England :  Cathedral.     East  window.     About  1300  A.D. 

sidered  wholly  exceptional.  The  famous  west  window  of 
the  nave  of  Winchester  Cathedral  is  known  to  have  been 
built  before  1366,  and  here  the  traceried  window  fills  the 
whole  space  within  the  constructional  piers  and  the  vault 
which  they  carry,  and  does  so  in  a  perfectly  normal  way, 
there  being  only  a  slight  blunting  of  the  window  arch, 
which  leaves  a  scrap  of  wall  above  it  and  below  the  vault. 
This  is  one  of  the  many  reasons  for  the  statement  often 


Sec.  IV]  ENGLAND  301 

made  that  the  Perpendicular  is  the  first  thoroughly  organ- 
ized English  Gothic  style.  Its  characteristics  are  the  low- 
pitched,  almost  flat  roof;  the  great  size  of  the  windows, 
which  fill  the  whole  or  nearly  the  whole  space  between  the 
constructional  uprights ;  the  generally  complete  organiza- 
tion of  the  vaulting  system,  with  vaulting  shafts  carried 
up  from  the  foundation ;  the  more  fully  developed  flying 
buttresses,  with  wall-strips,  against  which  they  abut;  and 
the  typical,  purely  English,  square  tower,  crowned  with 
an  open  parapet  and  with  four  or  eight  pinnacles,  but 
without  spire  or  visible  roof  of  any  kind.  Other  pecul- 
iarities are  less  universal,  but  very  characteristic,  such  as 
the  steep  slope  of  the  flying  buttresses,  as  in  Bristol 
Cathedral,  the  choir  of  Norwich  Cathedral  and  Bath  abbey 
church,  and  the  continual  employment  of  battlements 
and  pinnacles  breaking  the  sky-line  where  there  is  no 
visible  roof.  Churches  of  a  simple  kind  and  of  this  style 
are  very  numerous.  The  choir  of  Staindrop  Church,  Dur- 
ham County  (Fig.  165),  shows  Perpendicular  windows  of 
good  style,  those  of  the  north  flank  being  of  about  1370, 
and  that  of  the  east  end  of  the  fifteenth  century.  The 
Perpendicular  style  was  long-lived.  It  knew  how  to  accept 
and  assimilate  most  varied  forms  and  the  richest  and  most 
diversified  architectural  details.  Its  history  is  therefore 
continuous,  and  shows  a  natural  development,  from  1350 
to  the  beginning  of  what  we  call  the  Elizabethan  style,  as 
will  be  seen  in  Chapter  VII. 

In  the  matter  of  vaulting,  the  English  churches  grow 
continually  more  interesting  as  time  goes  on.  The  ribs, 
which  we  found  in  Chapter  V.  to  be  put  in  often  without 


302 


WESTERN   EUROPE,    1300  TO    1420  A.D. 


[Chap.  VI 


regard  to  construction,  and  for  decorative  purposes  alone, 
are  now  found  to  be  more  significant.  It  is  not  indeed 
possible  to  say  that  they  are  all  necessary,  but  at  least  it 
appears  that  a  skeleton  of  ribs  was  built  with  a  view  to 
the  ultimate  effectiveness  of  the  structure.  The  sim- 
plicity of  the  original  Gothic  vault  is  deliberately  aban- 


FlG.  165.     Staindrop,  England:   Church.     Choir  about  1370  A.D.,  except  end  window, 

which  is  later. 

doned,  but  in  the  place  of  it  a  rich  and  highly  architectural 
result  is  obtained.  When  such  a  decorative  buildinor  as 
the  nave  of  Canterbury  is  under  consideration,  it  seems 


Sec.  IV] 


ENGLAND 


303 


absurd  to  complain  of  it  for  not  resembling  the  simpler 
work  of  earlier  times.  The  nave  of  Winchester  Cathedral 
is  as  fine  as  that  of  Canterbury,  and  deserves  the  most 
careful  study. 

In  a  few  instances  an  entirely  novel  attempt  is  made. 
The  Gothic  builders  undertook  that  which  had  not  been 
tried  before.  The  most  important  departure  made  is  the 
case  of  the  regular  octagon  of  Ely.  Here  at  the  crossing 
of  the  nave  and  transept 
an  attempt  was  made  about 
1325  to  make  a  dome- 
like structure  conterminous 
with  the  whole  great  square 
within,  not  the  clear-story 
walls,  but  the  aisle-walls; 
that  is  to  say,  to  build  an 
octagonal  hall  as  wide  as 
the  nave  and  aisles  taken 
together,  nearly  seventy 
feet,  the  nave,  transept, 
and  choir  to  open  into 
the  four  opposite  sides  of 
this,  and  the  aisles  to  open  into  it  also  by  means  of 
low  archways  in  the  diagonal  walls.  The  vaulting  of 
this  octagon  is  based  upon  that  convex  or  semi-pyramidal 
arrangement  explained  in  the  last  chapter  in  connection 
with  Lincoln  Cathedral.  These  half-pyramids  are  arranged 
as  shown  in  the  plan  (Fig.  165  A),  and  the  ribs  which  form 
them  stop  at  the  continuous  octagonal  curb  above  from 
which  the  lantern  rises.     Now,  as  the  whole  weight  of  the 


Fig.  165  a.  Ely,  England:  Cathedral. 
Plan  of  the  crossing  of  nave  and  tran- 
sept.   The  vaulting  of  about  1325  a.d. 


304  WESTERN  EUROPE,    1300  TO    1420  A.D.  [Chap.  VI 

lantern  rests  upon  this  curb,  it  will  be  seen  that  the  ribs 
are  not  acting  at  all  as  parts  of  an  arch.  The  theory  ex- 
plained above  (pp.  196-7),  according  to  which  it  was  half- 
arches  which  were  found  to  be  the  essential  of  the  Gothic 
vaulting,  would  seem  to  have  been  carried  to  the  extreme 
in  this  case,  except  that  these  ribs  are  not  doing  arch-work 
at  all,  but  are  really  struts ;  and  the  key  of  the  whole  com- 
position is  the  rigid  octagonal  curb  above  alluded  to.  In 
other  words,  this  is  not  masonry  vaulting  in  the  ordinary 
sense;  but  that  is  indifferent,  and  the  world  might  have 
welcomed  the  innovation,  and  developed  the  idea  farther, 
had  the  result  seemed  agreeable  to  the  architectural  de- 
signers of  the  time.^  It  is  not  pleasing,  however.  The 
otherwise  beautiful  interior  is  marred  by  the  abrupt  expan- 
sion in  the  middle,  which  makes  the  four  arms  of  the  cross 
too  slender  by  comparison,  and  the  brightly  lighted  octa- 
gon overhead  breaks  into  the  dusky  stretches  of  vaulting 
in  the  harshest  way.  This  is  one  of  the  many  unsuccessful 
attempts  at  an  original  and  unexampled  system  of  design, 
and  one  of  the  most  vigorous  and  promising  of  them. 
Many  novel  experiments  in  vaulting  were  made  by  the 

^  The  Gothic  builders  can  hardly  be  thought  of  as  studying  the  cupolas  of 
the  Pantheon  at  Rome  and  H.  Sophia  at  Constantinople.  Their  attempts  at  cov- 
ering an  octagon,  as  at  Ely,  or  a  square,  as  at  Milan  (see  pp.  320-21),  with  one 
system  of  vaults  without  a  central  pillar,  are  not  strictly  attempts  at  cupola 
construction.  Such  as  they  are,  they  seem  not  to  have  satisfied  the  workmen  of 
the  time,  for  none  of  them  were  followed  up.  The  two  experiments  named 
above,  that  at  York  in  the  beautiful  chapter-house,  and  that  at  Prague,  the 
Karlshofer  Kirche,  are  all  interesting,  but  not  one  of  them  had  any  important 
results.  Of  these,  the  Prague  example  is  the  most  remarkable,  —  over  seventy- 
five  feet  from  side  to  side ;  that  of  Ely  is  about  seventy-two  feet  from  side  to 
side,  while  the  other  two  are  much  smaller. 


Sec.  IV] 


ENGLAND 


305 


English  church-builders  of  the  fourteenth  century.  One 
of  these,  from  the  "  Chapel  of  Nine  Altars "  in  Durham 
Cathedral,  is  given  in  Fig.  166.     It  is  curious  to  see,  in 


Fig.  166.     Durham,  England :  Cathedral.     Chapel  of  the  Nine  Altars.     Detail  of  the 

vaulting,  north  end. 

work  of  so  late  a  date,  the  retention  of  the  very  broad 
vaulting  rib  with  its  hollow  mouldings  filled  with  sculpt- 
ured leafage.  A  very  similar  system  has  been  followed  in 
the  choir-vaulting  of  the  same  beautiful  church. 


3o6 


WESTERN   EUROPE,    1300  TO    1420  A.D. 


[Chap.  VI 


The  year  1 395  saw  the  beginning  of  Westminster  Hall, 
one  of  the  most  important  and  interesting  buildings  in 
Europe,  not  wholly  ecclesiastical  in  character.  It  was 
finished,  with  its  noble  timber  roof,  before  the  close  of  the 

century.  Figure  166  A 
gives  half  of  one  bay  of  this 
roof,  which  has  sixty-eight 
feet  of  clear  width  between 
the  walls,  and  rises  forty- 
six  feet  above  them  to  its 
ridge.  The  walls  of  West- 
minster Hall  are  very  mas- 
sive, and  pierced  with  win- 
dows which  are  small  for 
its  extent.  The  building 
is  therefore  not  more  close- 
ly related  to  true  Gothic 
construction  than  are  the 
buildings  of  residence  or 
of  defence  erected  at  this 
time.  It  is  as  perfect  an 
example  as  exists  of  such 
exceptional  structures  as 
accompany  a  great  archi- 
tectural movement  but  do 
not  form  a  part  of  it.  What 
it  takes  out  of  the  Gothic 
system  is  its  high  and  steep 
roof,  its  peculiar  architect- 
ural  decoration    made    up 


Fig.  166  a.  London,  England:  Westmin- 
ster Hall.  Part  of  the  roof  seen  from 
within.  About  1398  A.D.  O,  principal 
horizontal  piece  which  bears  upon  the 
vertical  posts  D,  and  which  carries  the 
rafters  about  half-way  between  the  wall- 
plate  and  the  ridge.  The  vertical  posts 
D  rest  upon  the  hammer-beams,  the  ends 
of  which  are  carved  into  figures  of 
angels.  A,  collar-beam,  which  is  a  hori- 
zontal tie.  /,  /',  secondary  horizontal 
pieces  or  purlines.  Z,  N,  P,  diagonal 
braces.     Ji,  dormer  window. 


Sec.  V]  ITALY  307 

of  the  pointed  arch  with  cusps,  its  peculiar  sculpture, 
though  this  is  sparingly  used,  and  most  of  all,  its  reliance 
upon  the  actual  construction  and  the  constructional  put- 
ting together  of  the  parts  as  a  chief  means  of  effect. 


V 

At  the  beginning  of  the  fourteenth  century  two  very 
large  churches  were  in  progress  in  Italy,  — the  cathedral  of 
Florence  and  S.  Petronio  at  Bologna.  In  the  nave  of 
each  of  these  there  is  much  resemblance,  so  far  as  the 
interior  disposition  goes,  to  S.  Maria  Novella  at  Florence, 
described  in  the  last  chapter.  The  same  very  high  pillars 
widely  spaced,  so  that  the  nave  is  vaulted  in  squares  and 
so  that  the  nave  arches  rise  high  toward  the  roof,  reducing 
the  clear-story  to  a  mere  series  of  lunettes ;  the  same  lofty 
aisles  corresponding  to  the  nave-arches ;  the  same  absence 
of  any  system  of  vaulting  shafts,  the  nave-pillars  being 
indeed  composed  of  clustered  piers,  but  having  no  exact 
relation  to  the  vaulted  ribs  which  they  carry,  —  all  these 
peculiarities  are  seen  here  as  in  the  smaller  church.  Fig- 
ure 1 66  B  gives  a  portion  of  the  plan  of  each  of  these  two 
great  churches,  with  which  is  shown  a  part  of  the  plan 
of  Amiens.  The  two  Italian  churches  are  very  similar 
except  for  the  chapels  which  accompany  the  aisles  at  S. 
Petronio.  An  inevitable  result  of  the  vaulting  of  the  nave 
in  squares,  instead  of  parallelograms  with  their  length 
across  the  nave,  is  that  at  Florence  there  are  but  four  bays 
in  the  length  of  the  nave  and  at  Bologna  only  six,  although 


3o8 


WESTERN   EUROPE,    1300  TO    1420  AD. 


[Chap.  VI 


the  latter  nave  has  the  unusual  length  of  350  feet.  The 
result  of  this,  again,  is  the  inevitable  loss  of  much  of  the 
charm  of  the  northern  Gothic  churches.  The  apparent 
length  is  diminished  to  a  surprising  and  inexplicable 
extent  by  the  great  size  and  small  number  of  the  bays. 
Figure  167  shows  the  interior  of  S.  Petronio;  the  fact  that 


G-^ 


♦  ♦  * 


V4P 


Fig.  166  B.     Plans,  to  the  same  scale,  of  S.  Petronio,  B,  Bologna,  and  Cathedral  of 
Florence,  C,  compared  with  that  of  Cathedral  of  Amiens,  A. 

the  springing  line  of  the  nave-arches  at  the  top  of  the 
great  capitals  is  over  fifty  feet  from  the  floor,  and  the 
spring  of  the  nave-vaults  more  than  one  hundred  feet 
from  the  floor,  is  not  important  to  our  inquiry,  because 
those  dimensions  do  not  greatly  exceed  the  dimensions  of 
such  cathedrals  as  Amiens,  Bourges,  or  Cologne.  What 
is  important  is  the  absence  of  subdivision  into  numerous 
minor  parts,  all  combined  in  a  systematic  and  intelligible 


Fig.  167.     Bologna,  Italy  :  Church  of  S.  Petronio.     Nave.     Close  of  fourteenth  century. 


310  WESTERN  EUROPE,    1300  TO    1420  A.D.  [Chap.  VI 

way.  If  the  interior  of  Noyon  (Fig.  121)  be  compared 
with  this,  it  will  appear  that  the  whole  side  wall  of  the 
French  nave,  with  its  lower  arches  open  into  the  aisles,  its 
gallery,  triforium,  and  clear-story  windows  in  the  intervals 
of  the  vaulting,  is  replaced  in  the  Italian  example  by  nave- 
arches  of  just  three  times  the  span  of  the  French  ones  and 
by  the  same  blank,  bare,  unorganized  wall  above  them 
which  we  found  in  S.  Maria  Novella  (Fig.  140).  Mere  size 
has  been  of  little  avail  in  giving  dignity  to  this  great 
interior.  With  smaller  dimensions  a  French  Gothic  cathe- 
dral would  have  seemed  larger,  and  what  is  more  to  the 
purpose,  would  have  produced  a  perfectly  satisfactory 
artistical  result,  impressing  the  beholder  at  once  with  the 
sense  of  vastness  and  the  sense  of  perfect  grace  and  har- 
mony ;  surprising  him  by  its  boldness  and  yet  satisfying 
him  as  to  its  solidity.  In  other  words,  the  French  Gothic 
cathedral  embodies  a  complete  system  of  proportion, 
worked  out  as  carefully  and  grasped  as  perfectly  by  the 
builders  as  the  system  of  construction,  while  the  Italian 
interior  shows  a  style  half  understood  and  to  a  great  extent 
misunderstood,  and  the  need  of  years  of  development 
before  it  could  reach  perfection,  —  which  years  of  develop- 
ment were  not  to  be  granted. 

Nothing  of  S.  Petronio  was  ever  built  except  the  nave 
with  its  aisles  and  chapels.  The  existing  model  for  the 
completed  church  showS  that  it  was  to  have  been  a  Latin 
cross  in  plan,  about  750  feet  long  over  all  and  covered  at 
the  crossing  of  the  transept  by  a  gigantic  dome.  This  last 
feature  could  hardly  have  succeeded  in  the  hands  of  these 
unpractised   builders,  but   in  other  ways  S.   Petronio  has 


Sec.  V]  ITALY  311 

much,  even  in  its  early  and  original  conception,  to  interest 
the  student  of  mediaeval  building.  It  has,  for  instance, 
large  and  decorative  windows ;  windows  which  in  them- 
selves are  very  interesting  pieces  of  Gothic  designing.  In 
these,  the  simple  outer  tracery  is  of  brick-work  carefully 
moulded,  but  very  plain,  while  the  inner  and  more  elabo- 
rate tracery  is  of  marble.  Other  windows  there  are  which 
are  much  more  elaborate,  five  lights  instead  of  four  in 
width,  and  with  all  the  tracery  of  marble,  but  these  are 
later  in  date  and  inferior  in  taste. 

The  nave  of  Florence  Cathedral  shows  signs  in  the 
interior  of  the  elaborate  and  patient  study  which  marks 
every  part  of  that  famous  building  and  its  appendages. 
The  designer  was  offended,  as  he  might  well  have  been, 
by  the  awkward  form  of  the  piece  of  wall  above  the  nave 
arches  in  so  many  Italian  churches  (see  Figs.  140,  141). 
To  remedy  this,  he  carried  a  broad  band  horizontally 
above  the  nave-arches,  which  band  provides  a  rather  suc- 
cessful system  of  abutments  for  the  high  vaults.  The 
lunettes  of  the  clear-story  left  free  above  this  horizontal 
band  are  of  good  proportion,  and  the  double  spandrels 
below,  though  not  at  all  graceful,  are  felt  to  be  inevitable 
(see  Fig.  168).  That  the  nave  is  in  spite  of  this  care  on 
the  part  of  its  designer  a  most  uninteresting  and  unattrac- 
tive interior  is  caused  partly  by  the  absence  of  well-con- 
sidered and  well-applied  decoration ;  for  it  has  neither 
the  translucent  colour  of  the  North  ^  nor  the  opaque  colour 
of   Italy,  as  at  S.  Francis  of  Assisi ;  partly  by  the  small 

^  There  is  beautiful  glass  in  the  windows,  but  the  surface  is  relatively 
small. 


312 


WESTERN  EUROPE,    1300  TO    1420  A.D. 


[Chap.  VI 


size  and  unimportant  character  of  the  windows  as  seen 
from  within — for  a  great  interior  without  effective  win- 
dows is  lost ;  and  partly  by  the  same  faults  of  proportion 
which  we  have  noticed  in  S.  Petronio.  The  Gothic  style, 
even   in  this   bastard  form,   reaches   no  farther  than    the 


Llj_ll1 1 L 


Fig.  168.     Florence,  Italy:  Cathedral.     Construction  of  nave.     First  half  of  fourteenth 

century. 

nave  (see  Fig.  1 66  B).  To  the  eastward  of  the  nave  comes 
the  great  octagon  with  its  three  apses  and  the  chapels 
which  surround  them ;  a  combination  of  structures  origi- 
nally Romanesque  in  plan,  as  pointed  out  above  (page 
149),  and   developed    into    a   series    of    semi-independent 


Sec.  V]  ITALY  3 1 3 

octagons  and  parts  of  octagons,  each  having  its  own 
cupola.  It  is  not  known  exactly  what  the  first  designer 
had  in  mind  for  the  roofs  of  this  tri-apsal  sanctuary,  but 
it  was  clearly  nothing  in  the  least  degree  Gothic. 

The  tendency  to  avoid  the  pointed  style  and  to  insist 
upon  the  round-arched  building  as  a  natural  development 
of  the  earlier  Romanesque  is  well  seen  in  a  noble  build- 
ing of  this  time,  the  cathedral  church  of  S.  Martino  at 
Lucca,  built  during  the  first  half  of  the  fourteenth  cen- 
tury. Here  the  pillars  of  the  nave  are  not  unlike  those 
of  the  pseudo-Gothic  churches  we  have  described,  and  the 
pilaster,  which  takes  the  place  of  vaulting  shafts,  differs 
from  the  similar  features  in  the  pointed-arched  churches 
only  in  being  somewhat  broader  and  more  massive. 
Springing  from  these  pilasters  are  large  and  heavy  trans- 
verse arches,  and  the  vault  which  finds  much  of  its  sup- 
port in  these  can  hardly  be  called  a  Gothic  vault  (see 
Fig.  168  A).  It  is  indeed  doubtful  whether  the  slightly 
emphasized  ribs  are  really  constructional  ribs  at  all,  and 
whether  we  have  not  here  a  revival  of  the  early  Roman- 
esque cupola-vault,  depending  upon  the  transverse  arches 
and  the  wall-arches  for  its  support;  as  in  the  case  of 
S.  Michele  at  Pavia  (see  p.  169).  There  is  an  admirable 
triforium  consisting  of  two  arches  in  each  bay,  sometimes 
round  and  sometimes  pointed,  the  great  arches  of  the 
nave  are  semicircular,  and,  in  fact,  there  is  nothing  to 
remind  one  of  the  existence  of  northern  Gothic  except 
the  not  very  characteristic  tracery  beneath  the  arches  of 
the  triforium.  A  still  more  decided  protest  against  the 
northern  Gothic  is  seen  in  the   Loggia  dei   Lanzi,  built 


Fig.  i68  a.     Lucca,  Italy:  Cathedral  as  completed  early  in  the  fourteenth  century. 


Sec.  V]  ITALY  3 1 5 

at  Florence  from  the  designs  of  Orcagna  about  1375. 
This  structure  (see  Fig.  169)  is,  in  plan,  a  parallelogram 
roofed  in  three  nearly  square  compartments.  These  com- 
partments are  separated  by  immense  and  solid  transverse 
arches,  and  the  archivolts  pf  the  great  arches  of  the  inte- 
rior and  of  the  wall-arches  are  deep  and  show  the  most 
massive  and  careful  construction.  The  vaulting  ribs  also 
are  extremely  massive,  so  that  the  great  vaults,  about 
forty  by  forty-three  feet,  are  carried  by  what  seems  almost 
a  superfluity  of  support.  This,  however,  is  only  an  addi- 
tional expression  of  that  non-Gothic  feeling  of  which  this 
building  is  so  marked  an  instance. 

In  the  Loggia  dei  Lanzi,  as  in  so  many  other  Italian 
buildings,  iron  ties  are  used  to  resist  the  thrust  of  the 
vaults.  It  cannot  be  said  that  these  ties  are  absolutely 
necessary.  The  building  is  very  solidly  constructed  and 
with  excellent  workmanship ;  the  great  piers  are  about 
six  feet  in  thickness ;  the  weight  on  the  haunches  of  each 
arch  is  that  furnished  by  twenty  feet  vertical  of  solid 
masonry,  and  this  weight  might  easily  have  been  made 
very  much  greater  at  the  angles,  where  especially  needed, 
without  altering  the  design,  by  the  simple  process  of 
building  up  to  the  level  of  the  top  of  the  parapet  at 
those  points.  It  is  unquestionable  that  these  ties  are  used 
in  Italy  when  not  needed.  Every  one  who  has  observed 
Italian  buildings  of  the  middle  ages  will  recall  long  ar- 
cades of  which  the  inner  arches  are  as  elaborately  stayed 
as  the  end  ones,  with  stout  iron  bars.  It  has  long  ago 
become  an  admitted  feature:  the  bars  are  put  in  on  all 
occasions  and  in  every  place,  spanning  small  arches  and 


Fig.  169.     Florence,  Italy :  Loggia  dei  Lanzi.     About  1375  a.d. 


Sec.  V]  ITALY  317 

great,  and  steadying  alike  corner  pillars  with  vaults  press- 
ing on  them  in  two  directions,  and  pillars  equally  large 
receiving  no  thrust  that  is  not  taken  up  and  counterbal- 
anced. If,  therefore,  we  assume  that  this  building  does 
not  absolutely  require  the  iron  ties,  we  have  a  faultless 
structure  and  one  which  deserves,  as  indeed  it  commands, 
almost  universal  admiration.  If,  however,  the  ties  are 
assumed  to  be  necessary,  there  is  still  in  this  beautiful 
portico  the  almost  complete  development  of  an  architect- 
ural style.  The  needs  of  Italian  builders  would  have 
been  well  met  by  the  system  of  vaulting,  the  scheme  of 
archivolts  and  clustered  pillars  and  the  semi-classic  sculpt- 
ure of  the  elaborate  compound  capitals  with  leafage  in 
three  rows,  which  leafage  surrounds  each  great  pier  with 
a  belt  of  ornament,  and  is  not  so  much  a  capital  as  the 
crowning  member  of  a  pillar  too  large  to  be  treated  as 
a  column.  It  is  in  every  way  to  be  regretted  that  the 
Italians  did  not  abandon  Gothic  architecture  at  this  point, 
and  go  on  to  a  round-arched  style,  which  would  have 
had  undoubtedly  much  of  the  character  of  the  building 
before  us. 

The  exterior  decorative  architecture  of  the  cathedral  of 
Florence,  and  that  of  the  famous  bell-tower  (see  Plate  IV.), 
embody  another  attempt  to  provide  a  new  architectural 
style  for  the  new  conditions.  It  is  clear  that  nowhere  in 
Italy  more  than  in  Florence  was  there  felt  that  longing  for 
a  style  more  southern  in  its  characteristics  than  they  found 
the  Gothic  style  to  be.  The  walls,  to  please  the  Floren- 
tines, had  to  be  broad  and  smooth,  and  unbroken  within 
and  without.     The  Gothic  structure,  with  its  organization 


3i8  WESTERN  EUROPE,  1300  TO    1420  A.D.  [Chap.  VI 

showing  in  every  foot  of  it,  did  not  interest  them  at  all. 
Small  windows  and  few  of  them ;  the  interiors  treated  like 
halls,  with  their  different  parts  nearly  of  a  height  and  no 
refined  system  of  proportion  governing  the  heights  and 
widths  of  the  different  parts ;  doorways  small  and  low,  and 
opening  anywhere,  as  convenient,  forming  indeed  no  part 
of  the  plan  considered  as  a  work  of  art,  —  all  these  pecul- 
iarities left  the  Florentines  at  liberty  to  think  out  some- 
thing in  surface  ornamentation.  Twelve  hundred  years 
before,  the  Roman  imperial  architects  had  thought  out  a 
similar  problem,  and  had  elaborated  a  system  of  surface 
ornament  by  the  use  of  thin  facings  of  marble,  serpentine, 
and  alabaster,  and  still  thinner  ones  of  glass  coloured  in 
the  material  or  moulded  in  low  relief.  Now  in  the  four- 
teenth century  the  Florentines  invested  the  exteriors,  first 
perhaps  of  their  baptistery,  next  of  the  campanile,  and 
finally  of  the  cathedral  itself,  with  a  facing  of  coloured 
marble.  The  larger  surfaces  are  covered  with  panel  work 
not  very  minute  or  elaborate  in  its  parts,  but  everywhere 
are  horizontal  bands,  upright  splays  of  window  jambs,  and 
archivolts  flush  with  the  wall  or  in  reveal,  which  members 
are  adorned  with  an  inlay  of  marble  so  delicate  in  its  parts 
and  so  elaborate  in  design  as  to  vie  with  the  mosaic  floors 
of  the  baptistery.  In  grace  of  design  and  in  variety  of 
pattern  these  inlays  surpass  anything  of  the  kind  in  west- 
ern art.  A  great  deal  of  sculpture  in  low  relief  is  used  in 
connection  with  this  delicate  inlay.  These  highly  decora- 
tive parts  are  used  in  connection  with  the  simple  panelling 
of  the  exterior  with  almost  infallible  touch.  The  flanks 
of   the    cathedral  of    Florence,   nearlv   devoid  of    greneral 


CATHEDRAL  OF  FLORENCE  (TUSCANY)  ITALY 
The  tower  and  marble  sheathing  of  the  walls  are  of  XIV  century. 
View  from  S.  E.  of  tower  and  western  part  of  Nave, 


Sec.  V]  ITALY  319 

architectural  character,  are  treated  with  this  marble  facing 
in  such  a  way  and  with  such  consummate  skill  that  each 
becomes  an  architectural  composition  of  a  high  order.  It 
becomes  evident,  on  comparing  the  south  flank  of  Florence 
with  that  of  a  cathedral  like  Bourges,  that  there  are  two 
architectures  left  to  us  from  the  mediaeval  world.  It 
appears  that  the  architecture  of  construction  and  organ- 
ization, of  reason  and  logic,  of  perfect  proportion  and 
harmony  of  part  with  part,  is  but  one,  and  that  there  is 
also  the  architecture  of  huge  masses,  hardly  organized, 
piled  up  without  much  reference  to  the  significance  of 
their  parts,  roofs  and  walls  thought  satisfactory  if  they 
give  shelter,  and  then  adorned  richly  with  what  the  arts 
of  colour  and  of  form  can  give  after  the  construction  is 
finished. 

In  Tuscany  the  last  word  of  nominally  Gothic  art  was 
spoken  in  these  buildings  of  simple  form  and  build,  but 
beautiful  surface  ornament,  with  sculpture  and  painting. 
It  cannot  but  be  regretted  that  the  style  was  not  allowed 
to  develop  itself  freely,  without  the  violent  interruption  of 
the  classical  Renaissance.  In  the  North  of  Italy,  however, 
there  are  no  such  regrets  to  be  expressed.  Gothic  archi- 
tecture in  Lombardy  said  its  last  word  in  the  most  singu- 
lar building  in  the  Peninsula,  the  cathedral  of  Milan. 
This  buildins:  is  a  cruciform  church,  with  two  aisles  on 
each  side  of  the  nave,  one  aisle  on  each  side  of  the  tran- 
sept, and  an  aisle  turning  around  the  circular  end  of  the 
choir,  and  producing  a  polygonal  apse.  The  system  of  the 
interior  is  nearly  like  that  of  the  churches  of  S.  Anastasia, 
S.  Maria  Novella  and  S.  Petronio  at  Bologna,  in  having 


320  WESTERN   EUROPE,  1300  TO    1420  A.D.  [Chap.  VI 

the  clear-story  wall  reduced  to  a  lunette  awkwardly  invaded 
by  the  arch  rising  from  below.  In  one  respect  at  least  it  is 
superior  to  any  of  those  churches ;  the  number  of  bays  is 
practically  doubled,  so  that  the  aisle-vaults  are  in  square 
compartments,  and  the  compartments  of  the  nave  are 
parallelograms  of  almost  two  squares.  The  awkward 
high-shouldered  effect  produced  by  the  great  height  of 
the  pillars  in  proportion  to  the  arches  of  the  nave  and 
their  superincumbent  wall  is  indeed  increased  rather  than 
diminished  by  this  narrowing  of  the  bays,  but  that  which  is 
of  much  greater  importance,  the  proportions  of  the  church 
taken  lengthwise,  are  greatly  improved.  In  another  respect 
the  interior  is  worthy  of  study.  In  all  such  large  clustered 
piers,  when  it  is  decided  to  make  a*  ring  of  leafage  to 
serve  as  a  capital  of  the  whole  pier,  or  in  any  other  way 
to  end  the  shaft  of  the  pier  at  a  uniform  level,  as  is  gener- 
ally done  in  Italy  (see  S.  Petronio,  and  the  cathedrals  at  Flor- 
ence and  Lucca,  Figs.  167,  168,  168  A),  there  is  the  difficulty 
that  this  crowning  member  is  found  to  be  inadequate.  In 
the  case  of  the  Loggia  dei  Lanzi  (see  p.  317),  this  difficulty 
was  got  over  by  the  superimposition  of  three  decided  rows 
of  leafage.  In  Milan  Cathedral  a  far  more  daring  expe- 
dient was  resorted  to.  Each  pier  is  surrounded  at  the  top 
by  a  belt  of  niches  with  statues  in  them.  A  bold  leafy 
band  is  arranged  at  the  top  of  the  shaft ;  this  affords  a 
support  for  the  statues,  and  the  architectural  details  of  the 
niches  rise  around  the  piers  and  invest  them  up  to  the 
line  of  the  springing  of  the  nave-arches  and  aisle-vaults. 
In  the  vaulting  of  Milan  Cathedral  there  is  one  interesting 
feature,  —  the  curious  vault  at  the  crossing  of  nave  and 


Sec.  V]  ITALY  32 1 

transept,  which  may  be  thought  to  approach  success  as  a 
cupola  more  closely  than  any  Gothic  dome  that  exists.  It 
is  far  more  graceful  in  its  lines  than  that  which  covers  the 
octagon  of  Ely  Cathedral  (see  p.  303),  and  in  this  case, 
although  the  span  is  smaller,  the  undertaking  is  bolder, 
because  it  is  a  square  which  has  to  be  roofed,  the  roof 
being  brought  to  an  octagon  by  pendentives,  and  this 
crowned  by  a  vault  carried  on  eight  ribs  leaving  between 
the  curves  of  the  roof  eight  equal  lunettes. 

It  is  the  exterior  of  Milan  which  is  the  most  peculiar 
and  puzzling  of  designs,  and  one  of  the  least  agreeable 
of  all  important  pieces  of  architecture.  It  is  almost  uni- 
versally disliked  by  students  of  architecture  of  all  schools, 
and  has  indeed  nothing  to  recommend  it  even  to  popular 
favour  but  its  immense  size  and  the  effect  of  lis^ht  and 
shade  on  its  buttresses  and  pinnacles  of  white  marble 
as  if  upon  a  snowy  mountain.  Analysis  of  its  design  is 
impossible  here,  but  it  may  be  stated  that  the  fault 
which  seems  to  pervade  it  is  an  absolute  lack  of  fine 
proportion.  The  fa9ade  or  west  front  is  the  worst  part, 
and  will  probably  be  still  less  agreeable  when  the  classi- 
cal window-  and  door-pieces,  work  of  the  sixteenth 
century,  are  taken  out  as  proposed.  The  best  part  is 
perhaps  the  tower  which  crowns  the  cupola  above 
described,  and  with  curious  hollow  curves  ends  in  a  very 
lofty  spire  which  no  observer  suspects  to  be  of  great 
height.  The  forest  of  pinnacles,  the  thick  fringe  of 
pointed,  gable-like  battlements,  and  the  cutting  up  of 
all  the  broad  surfaces  by  panelling,  in  no  way  disguise 
the  clumsiness  of  the  proportions. 


322  WESTERN   EUROPE,  1300  TO    1420  A.D.  [Chap.  \T 

A  far  better  result  is  reached  in  the  neighbouring  cathe- 
dral of  Monza,  where  a  fa9ade  of  white  and  gray  marble 
is  arranged  in  a  Romanesque  disposition  with  pointed 
forms.  This  front  is  of  the  years  1360- 1390,  and  shows 
in  a  curious  way  the  constant  and  perhaps  unconscious 
strivings  of  the  Italians  to  get  back  to  Romanesque 
forms.  This  is  the  more  remarkable  because  the  break- 
ing up  of  the  front  into  five  vertical  divisions,  wTth  the 
sloping  lines  of  what  assume  to  be  the  roofs  of  double 
aisles,  repeats  very  closely  the  lines  of  the  front  of  Milan 
Cathedral,  while  the  arcaded  cornice  and  fringe  of  gables 
over  the  porch  are  a  further  suggestion  of  that  florid 
design.  The  cathedral  of  Como  is  a  simpler  and  better 
design  as  far  as  its  west  front  is  concerned.  Except  for 
the  niches  which  occupy  nearly  the  whole  height  of  the 
pilaster-like  buttresses,  this  front  is  Gothic  as  the  Italians 
of  the  North  understood  Gothic,  and  is,  without  reference 
to  style,  a  simple  and  well-proportioned  front,  with  no 
fault  except  that  the  raised  central  portion,  representing 
the  clear-story,  has  no  clear-story  behind  it,  and  is  with- 
out other  reason  for  being  than  the  proportion  of  the 
front  taken  by  itself. 

A  few  miles  south  of  Milan  is  the  famous  Certosa  or 
Carthusian  convent,  with  a  church  which  was  begun  in 
1396.  This  is  one  of  the  most  successful  buildings  in 
mediaeval  Italy,  and  more  than  almost  any  other  makes 
the  student  regret  that  the  Italians  had  not  the  determi- 
nation to  resist  the  Gothic  influence  and  build  exclusively 
in  their  own  round-arched  style.  The  original  front  is 
entirely  lost,  having  been  replaced  by  the  superb  fa9ade 


Sec.  V]  ITALY  323 

of  1473  (of  which  we  shall  have  to  speak  in  Chap- 
ter VII.),  but  the  flanks  and  east  end  are  all  of  that 
highly  developed  Romanesque  in  which  the  parts  are 
made  extremely  light.  The  fact  that  the  interior  is  with- 
out the  iron  tie-rods,  which  are  almost  universal  in  Italy, 
goes  to  show  that  so  much  of  the  Gothic  construction 
as  is  used  here  has  been  intelligently  applied,  and  com- 
bined with  an  exterior  which  has  nothing  Gothic  except 
its  rational  disposition  of  parts. 

Venice,  which  has  no  Gothic  church  specially  worthy 
of  mention  as  embodying  different  principles  of  design 
from'  those  of  the  Lombard  cities,  has  a  system  of  civic 
and  domestic  architecture  which  must  be  noted.  There 
seems  no  doubt  that  the  traceried  arcades  of  the  Ducal 
Palace  were  invented  especially  for  that  building,  the 
sea  front  having  been  finished  before  1400.  These 
afford  one  of  the  few  instances  of  the  composition  of 
the  constructional  kind  reaching  its  complete  architect- 
ural effect  at  the  first  trial.  Figure  170  shows  a  part 
of  this  tracery  with  reference  to  its  simple  and  perfect 
constructive  character.  It  will  be  noticed  that  every 
part  is  arch  construction  of  the  most  complete  and  well- 
combined  sort.  Few  pieces  of  civic  or  domestic  architect- 
ure can  compare  with  this.  Ordinarily  the  residences  and 
civic  buildings  of  any  epoch  obtain  their  exterior  archi- 
tectural effect  by  the  mere  forms  of  the  main  mass  itself 
and  the  placing  of  the  windows.  If  more  than  this  is  at- 
tempted, it  is  by  means  of  wholly  useless  appendages  put 
on  to  the  building  for  the  mere  sake  of  breaking  it  up 
into  architectural  seeming,  —  or  by  sculpture   or  colour. 


324 


WESTERN   EUROPE,  1300  TO   1420  A.D. 


[Chap.  VI 


In  the  Ducal  Palace,  however,  long  open  galleries  being 
required,  the  building  which  contains  the  large  upper 
rooms  is  carried   upon  the  pillars  of   these  galleries  by 


^^^^^^Sk  ^^^^^^^  ^^^^^kAi         ^S^S^^St  AA^Ni^k^ 

inniMinnil  llitmi  iinntMiiini 


Fig.  170.     Venice,  Italy  :  Ducal  Palace.     Detail  of  sea  front.     Second  half  of 
fourteenth  century. 

means  of  a  perfectly  successful  modification  of  ordinary 
Gothic  window-tracery.  This  new  tracery  would  have 
been  absurdly  massive  had  it  not  the  heavy  wall  above 
to   carry.     As    it   is,   it  is  probably  the    most    successful 


Sec.  V] 


ITALY 


325 


piece  of  civic  architecture  in 
Europe.  The  scheme  was  im- 
mediately adopted  unchanged, 
and  also  with  modifications, 
by  the  builders  of  private 
palaces  in  Venice,  and  the 
style  spread  to  the  cities  of 
the  Venetian  dominion  such 
as  Vicenza  and  Padua. 

One    other  development  of 
Italian   Gothic    must 
be      named,  —  the 
tombs ;   compositions 
which  have  not  their 
equal    in   the   North. 
The  wall  tombs,  in 
which  light,  cusped 
arches    are    carried 
on     twisted     shafts, 
are  numerous  in  the 
churches  of  the  whole 
Peninsula,  but  by  far 
the    most    important 
out-of-door        monu- 
ments are  in  Verona. 
There,   on    the    wall 
which    encloses    the 
courtyard      of       the 

chapel     of     S.    Pietro         fjg,  171,     Verona,  Italy:  Tomb  of  Mastino  11. 

Martire,    stands    the  After  1351  a.d. 


326  WESTERN  EUROPE,  1300  TO    1420   A.D.  [Chap.  VI 

tomb  of  the  count  of  Castel-Barco;  in  the  little  courtyard 
behind  it  are  three  tombs  only  inferior  to  the  exquisite 
Castel-Barco  tomb  itself:  other  such  tombs  adorn  the 
fronts  or  the  flanks  of  the  Veronese  churches ;  and 
the  little  churchyard  of  S.  Maria  Antica  contains  the 
monuments  of  the  La  Scala  family,  which  for  two 
hundred  years  held  almost  undisputed  sway  over  the 
city.  The  tomb  of  Can  Grande,  who  died  1328,  is  over 
the  church  door;  the  tomb  of  Mastino  II.  (died  1351) 
stands  free,  a  square  monument  with  four  gables  (see 
Fig.  171);  the  tomb  of  Can  Signorio  (died  1375)  is  a 
structure  hexagonal  in  plan  and  still  more  elaborate  in 
design.  The  tomb  of  which  we  give  a  cut  is  a  piece 
of  ornamental  designing  which  cannot  be  surpassed  by 
any  building  of  Europe.  Its  sculpture  is  as  fine  as  its 
general  design  and  perfectly  fitted  to  its  plan  and 
purpose. 


CHAPTER   VII 

THE  ARCHITECTURE  OF  WESTERN  EUROPE  ABOUT 
1420  TO  1520  A.D.  Period  of  the  Latest  Gothic  Architecture 
EXCEPT  IN  Italy,  It  reaches  Great  Splendour  and  is  Full  of 
Interest  and  Value,  although  much  of  the  Original  Gothic  Spirit 
IS  lost.  In  Italy,  an  Extraordinary  Revival  of  Interest  in  Ancient 
Roman  Building  leads  to  a  Sudden  and  Complete  Abandonment  of 
Gothic  Building  and  Decoration.    The  Renaissance  in  Italy. 

I 

In  1422  Charles  VII.  succeeded  to  the  throne  of  France 
and  Henry  VI.  to  the  throne  of  England.  Two  years 
before  this  time  Henry  V.  of  England  had  entered  Paris, 
heir  of  France  by  treaty  as  well  as  by  possession  of  the 
northern  and  eastern  provinces;  but  the  years  after  his 
death  were  marked  by  the  steady  decline  of  English  power 
on  the  continent.  The  years  from  about  1435  to  1483  were 
destined  to  be  a  great  epoch  of  national  growth  under 
Charles  VII.  and  his  son,  the  long-headed  Louis  XI. 
Architecture,  which  had  hardly  lived  during  the  hideous 
years  of  Henry's  invasion,  came  into  being  again,  vigorous, 
strong,  and  at  a  point  of  development  not  easy  to  under- 
stand. There  had  been  so  little  building  of  importance  in 
what  was  then  France  during  the  long  lapse  of  time  from 

327 


328  WESTERN   EUROPE,  1420  TO    1520  A.D.  [Chap.  VII 

1 340-1420,  and  so  little  of  what  was  then  built  remains  to 
us,  that  it  is  hard  to  trace  the  evolution  which  culminated 
in  the  Flamboyant  style  of  1435.  Not  very  many  large 
churches  needed  to  be  built;  the  soil  of  France  was 
covered  with  churches  which  political  warfare,  not  con- 
nected now  as  in  earlier  and  in  later  times  with  religious 
controversy,  had  generally  spared.  As  there  were  not 
many  churches  to  build,  there  was  not  much  which  was 
new  in  vaulting;  in  fact,  the  great  principles  of  Gothic 
vaulting  had  been  established ;  and  although  it  is  curious 
to  watch  the  steady  divergence  of  the  English  and  French 
systems  of  vaulting,  it  is  not  important  to  insist  upon  the 
changes  within  the  French  style. 

The  church  of  S.  Germain  I'Auxerrois  at  Paris  (Fig.  172) 
is  perhaps  the  first  important  building  known  to  us  of  what 
we  call  the  Flamboyant  style,  which  style  was  to  prevail  in 
France  for  ninety  years  and  to  linger  even  beyond  that 
period  in  the  lands  which  took  their  inspiration  from  France. 
The  porch  of  S.  Germain  with  its  five  arches  crowned  with 
reversed  curves  and  sculptured  finials,  and  its  rose-window 
filled  with  flowing  tracery,  is  well  known  to  visitors  of 
Paris  and  to  all  students  of  architectural  illustration,  for 
this  is  the  parish  church  of  the  dwellers  in  the  Louvre, 
and  stands  opposite  the  great  colonnade  of  the  palace,  with 
only  a  street  between.  The  interior  is  less  known.  In 
the  nave  vaulting  is  seen  the  curious  and  characteristic 
mark  of  the  time,  the  absence  of  capitals  from  the  great 
pillars.  This  disappearance  of  the  capitals  from  the  prin- 
cipal pillars  can  only  be  explained  by  the  fact  that  the 
mouldings  of  all  the  vaulting  ribs  were  brought  to  the  same 


Sec.  I] 


FRANCE 


329 


level  for  their  point  of  departure.  This  was  a  recognized 
principle  of  the  time,  and  the  springing  of  the  five  ribs, 
including  perhaps  fifty  mouldings,  from  the  same  level, 
would  naturally  reduce  the  capital  which  should  terminate 
the  vertical  pillar  to  a  mere  sculptured  band.     It  was  felt 


Fig.  172.     Paris:  Church  of  S.  Germain  I'Auxerrois.     First  half  of  fifteenth  century. 

that  the  uppermost  course  of  stone  of  the  vertical  pillar 
required  ornament  no  more  than  any  other  of  its  numerous 
horizontal  courses,  and  in  those  times  of  reason  applied  to 
building  the  logical  spirit  was  sure  to  prevail  over  tradi- 
tion. The  disappearance  of  capitals  from  the  impost  near 
the  springing  line  of  the  arch  is  common  in  the  building 
of  the  fifteenth  century.     Figure   173,  a  detail  from   the 


330 


WESTERN   EUROPE,  1420  TO    1520  A.D. 


[Chap.  VII 


cathedral  of  Narbonne,  illustrates  this  novel  feature.  Slen- 
derness  of  supports  and  general  lightness  of  construction 
could  hardly  be  carried  farther  than  they  had  been  carried 
in  the  fourteenth  century,  but  perhaps  there  is  a  more 
marked  insistence  upon  this  lightness  as  an  essential  deco- 
rative feature. 

The  church  of  S.  Maclou  at  Rouen  is  of  this  epoch,  and 
here  we  have  practically  the  whole  de- 
sign of  a  church  as  one  mind  may  have 
conceived  it,  although  in  actual  con- 
struction the  spire  is  modern.  It  is  a 
small  church  with  a  very  curious  polyg- 
onal front.  Figure  174  gives  the 
pierced  gable  above  the  central  door- 
way of  the  west  front  of  this  church, 
as  it  was  before  the  restoration,  and 
this  gable  should  be  compared  with  that 
of  Rouen  Cathedral  (Fig.  150).  No 
better  instance  could  be  given  of  the 
extreme  development  of  tracery  as  a 
principal  feature  of  decorative  architecture,  which  is  charac- 
teristic of  the  time.  The  gables  over  the  porches  can  no 
longer  be  called  pierced  gables ;  they  have  become  mere 
triangles  of  tracery,  which  tracery  is  not  filled  with  glass, 
merely  because  it  is  not  important  to  keep  out  the  weather. 
The  tracery  is  designed  on  exactly  the  same  principles  as 
those  which  govern  window-tracery,  and,  like  window-tra- 
cery, this  has  a  decorative  value  which  is  perhaps  found  in 
no  other  ornamentation  which  has  no  reference  whatever  to 
natural  forms.    Nothing  in  the  whole  history  of  architecture 


Fig.  173.  Narbonne, 
France  :  Cathedral. 
One  pier  of  the  choir. 
Fifteenth  century. 


Sec.  I] 


FRANCE 


331 


can  equal  it  in  this  respect.  The  admired  interlacings 
of  the  Mohammedan  styles  and  those  of  certain  outlying 
schools  of  the  Romanesque,  together  with  the  curious 
wooden  mesh-rebiya  work,  are  as  far  as  is  the  fret-work  of 
the  remote  East 
from  equalling 
flamboyant  tra- 
cery in  this  re- 
spect. It  is  in 
itself  of  a  wonder- 
ful charm,  and  it 
is  capable  of  re- 
ceiving a  further 
decoration  in  the 
way  of  delicate 
floral  or  animal 
sculpture,  as  can 
be  seen  where 
the  stone  work  is 
sufficiently  pro- 
tected to  allow  of 
its  being  sculpt- 
ured with  the 
delicate  forms 
which  it  requires. 
The  staircase  to 
the  gallery  of  this  very  church  of  S.  Maclou  is  such  a 
piece  of  adorned  tracery,  but  of  later  date;  its  moulded 
bars  are  adorned  with  beasts  and  monsters,  delicate  in 
design  and  rich  in  fancy,  like  an  Oriental  carving  in  ivory. 


Fig.  1 74.     Rouen,  France :  Church  of  S.  Maclou.     Gables 
of  porch.     Second  half  of  fifteenth  century. 


332 


WESTERN   EUROPE,    1420  TO    1520  A.D. 


[Chap.  VII 


The  detail  from  the  cathedral  of  Evreux,  given  in  Fig.  175, 

is  a  good  instance  of  such 
combinations  of  tracery  with 
sculpture. 

A  more  massive  piece  of  ar- 
chitecture is  the  choir  of  Mont 
Saint  Michel,  on  the  Nor- 
man coast,  and  other  similar 
structures  are  the  church  of 
S.  Jacques  at  Dieppe,  parts 
of  the  cathedral  of  Quim- 
per,  in  Brittany,  the  beauti- 
ful church  of  Louviers  near 
Rouen,  and  the  lovely  tower 
appended  to  the  cathedral  at 
Bordeaux,  and  named,  from 
the  bishop  who  built  it.  Tour 
Pey-Berland.  A  good  exam- 
ple of  the  simpler  work  of 
the  time  is  the  cloister  of  the 
cathedral  of  Narbonne,  built 
about  1430:  Fig.  176  shows 
one  angle  of  this  structure. 
Northern  work  of  this  epoch 
was  commonly  lighter  in  its 
parts,  but  the  use  of  mould- 
ings, sculpture,  and  tracery 
was  the  same. 

Fig.  175.     Evreux,     France:    Cathedral.  -pj^g     ^.^[q.^     ^f      L^^ig    XL 

Buttress  of  nave  chapels.      Fifteenth      ,  ^ 

century.  is,  howevcr,  the  time  of  the 


Fig.  176.     Narbonne,  France:   Cathedral.     Detail  of  cloister.     About  1430. 


334  WESTERN  EUROPE,   1420  TO    1520  A.D.  [Chap.  VII 

real  glory  of  the  Flamboyant  style.  Between  1460  and 
1480  a  great  number  of  important  churches  were  built  or 
commenced.  At  Saint- Pol-de-Leon,  besides  the  beautiful 
cathedral,  there  was  built  during  these  years  the  strange 
belfry-tower  of  the  Kritzker.  In  this  important  tower  it 
is  most  interesting  to  see  the  rejection  by  the  builders 
of  angle  buttresses.  They  have  built  a  tower  as  square 
and  vertical  as  the  Italian  campaniles  and  crowned  it 
with  a  spire  and  pinnacles.  It  rises  to  a  height  of  240 
feet,  and  is  wholly  of  granite,  but  all  this  lofty  and  slender 
structure  rests  upon  four  columns  and  four  arches,  and 
is  supported  above  the  church  floor  like  the  central  tower 
of  a  thirteenth-century  cathedral. 

The  Flamboyant  seems  to  reach  its  greatest  excellence 
during  this  reign  of  Louis  XI.,  but  it  is  certainly  richer 
in  its  sculpture  and  in  the  combination  of  that  sculpture 
with  architectural  reforms  during  the  years  immediately 
following  the  accession  of  Charles  VIII.  (1483),  while  that 
king  was  engaged  in  the  invasion  of  Italy.  S.  Wulfran  of 
Abbeville,  northwest  of  Amiens,  is  perhaps  the  most  splen- 
did late  Gothic  church  in  existence.  It  seems  impossible 
to  carry  the  art  of  pierced  work  and  tracery  farther ;  and 
yet,  in  the  hands  of  the  consummate  artists  who  worked 
here  between  1488  and  15 10,  the  building  keeps  the 
appearance  of  a  stone  structure  and  has  none  of  the 
cold  look  as  of  a  piece  of  cast  iron  which  we  sometimes 
associate,  not  without  excuse,  with  the  florid  late  Gothic. 
The  effectiveness  of  the  whole  composition  is  wonderfully 
helped  by  the  admirable  figure  sculpture  arranged  around 
the  great  buttress  piers  of  the  front,  in  the  jambs  of  the 


Sec.  I]  FRANCE  335 

doors,  in  the  pediments,  and  in  the  pierced  gables.  It  is 
fantastic,  it  errs  on  the  side  of  excessive  action,  —  con- 
sidered by  itself  it  is  like  bronze  rather  than  wrought 
stone ;  but  the  architectural  designer  knew  how  to  keep 
it  in  hand  and  to  utilize  it  as  the  most  effective  decora- 
tion for  his  church,  the  culminating  point  of  the  mass 
of  florid  ornament.  The  church  at  Saint  Riquier,  not  far 
from  Abbeville,  is  a  later  study  in  the  same  spirit.  This 
church  may  be  said  to  be  imitated  from  S.  Wulfran,  but 
it  has  its  own  merits,  and  it  is  very  curious  to  see  in  a 
more  advanced  form  the  tendencies  already  visible  in  the 
Abbeville  church.  One  of  these  tendencies  is  seen  in 
the  abandonment  of  deep  portals ;  those  at  S.  Wulfran  at 
Abbeville  are  reduced  to  only  two  rows  of  niches  in  the 
arch  and  two  large  recesses  for  statues  below,  while  those 
at  Saint  Riquier  are  scarcely  more  than  doorways  in  thick 
walls.  Another  innovation  is  the  breaking  up  of  the 
fa9ade  and  the  flank  by  huge  tower-like  masses,  in  many 
of  which  spiral  staircases  are  worked  and  which  are 
ornamented  by  the  simplest  panelling.  It  seems  to  have 
been  felt  that  this  including  in  the  composition  of  broad 
vertical  bands  of  comparatively  simple  walling  was  made 
necessary  by  the  florid  character  of  the  general  design. 
Certainly  nothing  like  it  is  to  be  found  in  the  thirteenth- 
century  churches. 

Greatly  inferior  to  these  brilliant  designs  of  the  North 
are  some  of  the  churches  in  the  provinces  of  the  far  East. 
That  renowned  building  standing  by  itself  in  a  lonely 
plain,  Notre  Dame  de  I'Epine  near  Chalons,  is  hardly 
worthy   to   rank  with   the   buildings  we  have   named ;    in 


336 


WESTERN   EUROPE,    1420  TO    1520   A.D. 


[Chap.  VII 


in  the  architecture  of 
turn  to  an  earlier 
scribe  it  in  detail  is 


exterior  design  it  is  monotonous,  it  is  uninteresting,  it 
has  almost  no  sculpture,  and  its  vast  mass  —  for  it  is  as 
large  as  a  cathedral  —  has  a  vexatious  look  of  cold  uni- 
formity, as  if  of  a  modern  Gothic  church.  It  is  curious 
and  perhaps  inexplicable  that  a  serious  effort  was  made 

the  interior  to  re- 
style.  To  de- 
to  describe  a  four- 
teenth  century 
interior,  with  its 
clustered  piers, 
its  triforium  of 
small  arches  sup- 
ported on  round 
columns,  and  its 
simple  vaulting ; 
but  to  examine  it 
is  to  find  the 
charm  of  the  true 
fourteenth  cen- 
tury work  disap- 
pear, while  none 
of  the  flamboyant  beauty  is  there  to  replace  it.  The  church 
is  known  to  have  been  built  complete  between  1427  and 
1472,  having  been  begun  in  commemoration  of  a  miracle 
whose  date  is  fixed  at  14 19.  The  ruined  church  of  S. 
Jacques  des  Vignes  at  Soissons,  whose  enormous  fa9ade 
stands  like  a  screen  at  the  edge  of  the  little  town,  has 
some  of  the  clumsy  immaturity  of  Notre  Dame  de  I'Epine. 
On  the  other  hand,  nothing  can  be  more  complete  and 


Fig.  177. 


Avioth,  France :  Chapel  attached  to  the  village 
church.     Fifteenth   century.     Plan. 


Fig.  178.     Avioth,  France :  Chapel  (see  Fig.  177). 


^^8  WESTERN  EUROPE,    1420  TO   1520  A.D.  [Chap.  VII 

delicately  finished  in  architecture  than  the  la7tterne  des 
morts  at  Avioth  near  Montmedy,  in  the  extreme  north- 
east of  France,  a  building  of  1480.  In  this  instance  the 
return  to  an  earlier  type  in  the  round  columns  which 
form  the  lowest  story,  architecturally  speaking,  and  which 
carry  the  florid  lantern  above,  is  as  admirably  managed 
as  it  was  unsuccessful  at  Notre  Dame  de  I'Epine.     Figure 

177  gives  the  plan  of  this  admirable  monument,  and  Fig. 

1 78  its  exterior,  both  from  VioUet-le-Duc.  As  the  building 
now  stands  it  has  no  glass  in  the  windows  of  the  octagon, 
and  is  the  worse  for  this  as  losing  some  of  its  character 
as  a  closed  building.  This  exquisite  lantern  is  immedi- 
ately attached  to  a  church  of  the  fourteenth  and  fifteenth 
centuries,  a  very  curious  instance  of  what  would  be  under- 
taken in  a  small  and  poor  community  which  yet  was 
ambitious  in  the  way  of  building.  It  has  almost  no  orna- 
mentation except  the  traceries  of  the  windows  and  one 
rather  rich  door  to  the  west  and  on6  to  the  south.  Seen 
from  the  northeast  the  church  is  as  plain  and  bare  as  a 
structure  on  a  Gothic  plan  can  be,  except  always  for  the 
flamboyant  tracery  of  its  large  windows. 

Two  splendid  church  towers  belong  to  this  epoch,  the 
northwestern  tower  of  Chartres  Cathedral,  and,  at  Rouen 
Cathedral,  the  southernmost  of  the  western  towers,  called 
la  tour  de  Beurre.  Other  examples,  less  famous  and 
smaller,  abound  in  many  parts  of  France.  The  well- 
known  tower  of  .S.  Jacques  la  Boucherie,  in  Paris,  is  of 
the  very  last  years  of  this  epoch ;  and  so  are,  at  Rouen, 
the  towers  of  S.  Laurent  and  S.  Andre  and  the  crowning 
of   the  north  tower  of   the    cathedral.     Northern    France 


Fig.  179-     Albi,  France  :  Cathedral.     South  porch.     Qose  of  fifteenth  century. 


Fig.  i8o.    Tours,  France :  Cathedral.    Central  doorway  of  west  front.    Fifteenth  century. 


Sec.  I] 


FRANCE 


341 


contains  many  admirable  towers  and  parish  churches  of  the 
years  1 450-1 520,  and  one  church,  inferior  to  none  in  beauty, 
is  in  the  South,  S.  Pierre  at  Avignon.     In  these  build- 


FiG.  181.     Eu,  France:  Village  church.     Decorative  pendant  of  the  choir-vault. 

ings  the  most  striking  merit  is  the  complete  mastery  of 
quaint  and  varied  detail,  as  shown  in  the  perfect  harmony 
which  is   maintained  in  the  complete  work.     The  porch 


342  WESTERN   EUROPE,  1420  TO    1520   A.D.  [Chap.  VII 

which  projects  from  the  south  flank  of  the  cathedral  of 
Albi  (shown  in  Fig.  179)  illustrates  this  skill  in  the  man- 
agement of  detail.  It  is  entirely  of  white  stone  and  is 
relieved  against  the  brownish  red  mass  of  the  brick  for- 
tress-cathedral  (see  p.  264).  Smaller  detail,  such  as 
tracery  and  sculpture  of  living  forms,  is  equally  well 
used  (see  Fig.  180,  which  shows  one  of  the  doorways  of 
the  cathedral  of  Tours).  Figure  181  is  a  pendant  from 
the  church  of  Eu  in  Normandy.  Figure  182  gives  the 
beautiful  jube  or  rood  screen  of  the  church  of  the  Made- 
leine at  Troyes,  the  date  of  which  is   1508. 

As  an  interesting  building,  half-way  between  the  ecclesi- 
astical and  the  domestic  in  character,  there  may  be  men- 
tioned the  charming  little  chapel  of  S.  Hubert  on  the 
edge  of  the  great  terrace  at  Amboise.  A  piece  of  vault- 
ing of  the  same  epoch  in  one  of  the  great  towers  of  the 
chateau  illustrates  what  has  been  said  in  previous  chapters 
on  the  loss  of  character  suffered  by  Gothic  vaulting  when 
held  between  continuous  walls  of  perfect  solidity. 

The  house  of  Jacques  Coeur  at  Bourges  is  now  fairly 
well  restored,  and  is  in  use  as  a  town  hall.  It  is  well 
known  by  illustrations  in  all  the  books.  It  is  an  excellent 
study  of  planning,  adapted  to  an  irregular  site  and  to  the 
ancient  towers  of  the  town  wall  which  it  was  necessary  to 
utilize.  The  Palais  de  justice  at  Rouen  is  one  of  the 
most  sumptuous  of  the  civic  structures  of  the  time,  a  mag- 
nificent piece  of  florid  Gothic  in  which  intelligent  design- 
ing and  good  taste  have  held  in  hand  what  would  other- 
wise be  a  great  excess  of  ornamentation.  One  of  the 
gems   of   the   epoch  was   the  Hotel  de  la  Tremouille    in 


344 


WESTERN   EUROPE,  1420  TO    1520  A.D. 


[Chap.  VII 


Paris,  destroyed  almost  within  our  own  times,  but  re- 
corded by  M.  Albert  Lenoir  in  trustworthy  plates  of 
great  beauty.  Better  known  than  this  is  the  Hotel  de 
Cluny,  visited  by  foreigners  in  Paris  for  the  sake  of  the 


.■«^^\^\S\\\^^SSSiW\S!®5S'«S\!«\^S5?5S'>SiNJ>J»\\^^^^ 


Fig.  183.     Paris:  Hotel  de  Cluny.      1490  to  1520  A.D.     Plan. 

museum  contained  in  it;  but  its  architecture  is  perhaps 
little  regarded  by  them.  It  is  a  better  type  of  the  stately 
city  house  of  the  day  than  either  of  the  other  buildings 
named.  Figure  183  gives  its  plan,  in  which  A  and  A'  are 
the  entrances  from  the  street,  B  the  porter's  lodge,  C  a 


^ 


346  WESTERN  EUROPE,  1420  TO   1520  A.D.  [Chap.  VII 

covered  portico,  H  and  H'  rooms  of  the  principal  build- 
ing on  the  ground  floor,  which  are  entered  from  the  portico 
C  from  the  court  by  the  little  door  _/",  from  the  winding 
staircase  R,  and  from  the  kitchen  D,  by  way  of  the  small 
winding  staircase  P.  The  door  g  leads  from  the  court  to 
the  kitchen.  /  is  a  room,  and  K  is  a  loggia  opening  on  to 
the  garden  G,  and  a  staircase  R  and  the  smaller  staircase 
6^  give  access  to  these  rooms  and  lead  to  the  upper  story. 
i^is  a  hall  of  the  ancient  Roman  thermae.  Figure  184  is 
a  view  of  the  same  building.  It  is  as  plain  as  any  costly 
house  of  the  day  could  well  be ;  perhaps  its  destination,  to 
serve  as  the  Paris  home  and  office  of  the  powerful  abbots 
of  Cluny,  caused  it  to  be  treated  with  less  elaboration  of 
design  than  the  house  of  a  lay-lord. 

It  became  very  common  in  the  fourteenth  century  to 
build  city  fronts  of  wooden  frame  filled  in  with  masonry. 
The  upper  stories  of  these  houses  often  but  not  always 
projected  beyond  the  ground  floor.  Sometimes  two  suc- 
cessive projections  would  be  given  to  the  two  principal 
stories  above  the  basement,  in  which  case  the  basement 
would  often  be  made  of  stone  and  very  massive,  making 
an  excellent  and  appropriate  contrast  with  the  extreme 
lightness  of  the  work  above.  Figure  185  gives  a  house 
in  Rouen  in  which  the  whole  front  is  in  one  plane,  and 
consists  entirely  of  windows  and  the  panels  beneath  them. 
The  great  window  of  the  basement  is  an  admirable  instance 
of  the  proper  way  to  manage  a  shop  front. 


Fig.  185.     Rouen,  France :  House.    Second  half  of  fifteenth  century. 


348  WESTERN  EUROPE,  1420  TO   1520  A.D.  [Chap.  VII 


II 

The  cathedral  tower  at  Antwerp  (Plate  V.),  begun  at 
the  very  commencement  of  our  present  epoch,  is  as  fine 
as  any  steeple  in  Europe  of  its  class ;  that  is,  of  those  in 
which  all  semblance  of  a  roof  is  given  up,  and  the  spire 
is  made  a  mere  ornamental  finish  and  culmination  of  a 
highly  ornamental  belfry.  It  should  be  compared  rather 
with  the  tower  of  Strasburg  than  with  any  within  the 
limits  of  modern  France.  Antwerp  steeple  was  the  work 
of  a  Flemish-speaking  community,  and  Strasburg  of  a 
German  people  who  scarcely  used  the  French  language. 
Each  of  these  buildings  is  altered  from  the  French  type ; 
exaggerated  a  little,  forced  a  little  in  design,  but  each  is 
the  more  interesting  for  that,  and  a  lover  of  florid  Gothic 
should  study  them  both.  The  church  of  S.  Waudru  at 
Mons  and  the  cathedral  church  of  S.  Rombold  at  Mechlin 
are  valuable,  on  the  other  hand,  for  their  reserve  and 
gravity  of  design,  as  if  of  an  earlier  epoch. 

The  special  glory  of  the  Spanish  Netherlands,  as  of  the 
border  provinces  of  what  was  then  France,  was,  however, 
in  the  civic  buildings  of  the  towns.  The  splendid  hbtel-de- 
ville  of  Brussels  had  been  built,  except  for  its  tower,  as 
early  as  1406.  Thirty  years  later  the  noble  tower  was 
begun,  and  at  about  the  same  time  the  hbtel-de-ville  of 
Louvain,  near  Brussels,  on  the  east,  was  undertaken. 
It  is  curious  to  compare  this  varied  and  elaborate  structure 
with  the  far  more  sedate  contemporary  town-halls  of  Douai 
and   Noyon,  so   near  at  hand,  and  one  of   them  at  least 


PLATE  V.  PART   OF   WEST   FRONT   OF   CATHEDRAL  OF   ANTWERP,    BELGIUM 

The   southern    spire   never   finished.     The    northern    one    built    about    1500-1510. 


PLATE     VI. 


TOWNHALL  OF    LOUVAIN,    BELGIUM 
Built   about     1450-63. 


Sec.  II]  PROVINCES,  N.  AND   S.  OF  FRANCE  349 

hardly  French,  politically  speaking,  when  the  town-hall 
was  built.  The  building  at  Louvain  is  high  and  narrow 
(Plate  VI.),  with  three  rather  lofty  stories  in  its  walls  and 
four  rows  of  little  dormer  windows  in  its  steep  roof ;  it  has 
six  tower-like  pinnacles  of  considerable  elevation,  and  an 
elaborate  system  of  balconies  with  pierced  and  traceried 
parapets.  Moreover,  a  great  number  of  statues  of  life-size, 
or  nearly  as  large,  throng  the  towers  and  the  piers  between 
the  pointed  windows,  and  each  of  these  is  placed  in  an 
elaborate  Gothic  niche  made  up  of  projecting  canopy  and 
richly  carved  corbelled  support.  It  is  a  work  of  extraordi- 
nary beauty  and  of  the  highest  interest  to  the  student  who 
wishes  to  see  what  may  be  achieved  by  extreme  variety 
and  richness  with  minute  subdivision  of  light  and  shade, 
and  with  almost  no  relief  of  plain  surfaces.  Most  of  the 
celebrated  town-halls  belong  to  a  later  time,  but  this  one 
remains  unexcelled,  perhaps  unmatched,  in  fantastic  beauty. 
In  Spain,  at  the  beginning  of  our  epoch,  there  was  in 
hand  the  unrivalled  nave  of  Gerona  Cathedral.  The  choir 
with  its  aisles  and  their  chapels  had  been  built  long  before, 
and  the  discussion  as  to  what  the  nave  should  be  was 
begun,  as  Mr.  Street  has  ascertained,  in  141 6.  As  the 
proposition  was  to  build  a  vault  twenty-three  feet  wider 
than  the  nave  of  Chartres,  and  thirty-five  feet  wider  than 
the  nave  of  Westminster  Abbey,  there  was  doubt  and 
delay,  but  the  vault  was  finally  erected  seventy-three  feet 
wide  in  the  clear  and  of  a  type  as  simple  as  that  of  the 
early  thirteenth-century  French  vaulting.  In  fact,  this  is 
a  belated  piece  of  thirteenth-century  work ;  the  conception 
of  a  master  mind  which  was  alone  in  its  generation. 


350 


WESTERN   EUROPE,  1420  TO    1520  A.D. 


[Chap.  VII 


Generally  in  Spain  the  Gothic  architecture  of  about  1440 
and  of  the  following  years  is  of  extreme  interest,  and  it  is 
impossible  to  more  than  hint  at  its  varied  and  fantastic 

grace.  The  vaulting  of 
S.  Thomas  at  Avila  is 
peculiar,  for  so  late  an 
epoch,  in  this,  that  each 
square  of  the  vault  is 
raised  into  an  almost  com- 
plete cupola.  The  sub- 
ordinate ribs  are  not  of 
a  kind  unfamiliar  in  the 
French  architecture  of  the 
time,  but  the  crowning 
of  the  centre  of  the  vault 
seems  a  reminiscence  of 
an  earlier  and  less  florid 
Gothic.  A  similar  feeling 
of  sympathy  for  earlier 
and  less  elaborate  Gothic 
is  evident  in  the  portal 
of  the  south  transept  of 
Toledo  Cathedral,  the 
well-known  Door  of  the 
Lions.  This  portal  is 
later  than  the  church  to 
which  it  is  attached ;  its  forms  are  those  of  good  four- 
teenth-century Gothic,  and  only  the  details  reveal  its 
late  date,  probably  1465.  This  is  the  more  surprising 
when   we  contrast   with   it   the   startling  novelty  of   the 


Fig.  186.  Valladolid,  Spain:  Church  of  S. 
Gregorio.  Doorway  of  cloister.  Close  of 
fifteenth  century. 


PLATE    VII. 


CHURCH  OF  SAN  PABLO,     VALLADOLID,  SPAIN 
West  front.     Built  about  1465-80. 


Sec.  II]  PROVINCES,  N.  AND   S.  OF  FRANCE  35 1 

front  of  S.  Pablo  at  Valladolid  (Plate  VII.).  This  fa9ade, 
which  is  known  to  be  of  about  1460,  contains  features 
of  seemingly  Italian  origin  mingled  freely  with  details 
similar  to  those  of  the  latest  French  Gothic.  It  is 
a  composition  which  seems  to  dispute  with  its  near 
neighbour  of  S.  Gregorio,  with  the  church  of  Brou,  and 
with  the  convent  at  Belem  in  Portugal,  the  claim  to  be  the 
most  fantastic  piece  of  florid  Gothic  existing,  and  yet  it  is 
much  earlier  in  date.  The  question,  how  far  the  Spanish 
architects  deserve  the  credit  of  the  invention  of  this 
strange  and  not  unbeautiful  architecture,  cannot  as  yet  be 
decided  with  certainty.  The  church  of  S.  Juan  de  los 
Reyes  at  Toledo,  though  of  later  date  (about  1490),  is  more 
strictly  Gothic  in  design,  and  its  splendid  cloister  of  about 
the  same  years  (1470-80)  is  Gothic  in  everything  except 
its  minutest  details.  This  cloister  with  its  magnificent 
statuary,  at  once  architectural  and  sculpturesque,  should 
be  compared  with  the  church  of  S.  Wulfran  at  Abbeville, 
in  northern  France.  Figure  186  shows  a  doorway  of  this 
epoch ;  it  is  one  of  the  doors  of  the  cloister  of  S.  Gregorio 
at  Valladolid.  Here  there  is  nothing  that  is  not  good 
Gothic  of  the  time,  but  the  outer  doorway  of  the  same 
convent  contains  many  of  the  strange  non-Gothic,  non- 
mediaeval  elements  spoken  of  above,  and  is  even  more  fan- 
tastic and  unexpected  than  its  near  neighbour,  the  portal 
of  S.  Pablo.  The  strange  thing  called  the  Mudejar  style 
may  have  had  some  weight  in  the  scale,  and  the  well-known 
arcade  of  the  Palacio  del  Infantado  at  Guadalajara  shows 
nearly  what  had  become  of  this  style  at  the  epoch,  late  for 
it,  of  1 46 1  (see  Fig.  187).     It  has  also  been  suggested  that 


352 


WESTERN  EUROPE,  1420  TO   1520  A.D. 


[Chap.  VII 


some  part  of  the  inspiration  of  these  innovating  architects, 
in  both  Spain  and  Portugal,  came  from  India  by  way  of 
commercial  intercourse/  If  this  can  be  established,  and  if 
the  date  of  these  examples  in  the  Peninsula  is  certain,  the 


Fig.  187.     Guadalajara,  Spain:  Palace  of  the  Duke  of  Infantado.    About  1465  A.D. 

influence  of  these  buildings  on  the  French  architecture 
becomes  evident,  and  an  addition  is  made  to  architectural 
history.  So  far  as  beautiful  and  satisfactory  building  goes, 
however,  the  student  remains  more  at  home  with  purer 

1  See  Albrecht  Haupt :  Baukunst  der  Renaissance  in  Portugal. 


Sec.  II]  PROVINCES,  N.  AND   S.  OF  FRANCE  353 

work  of  the  same  epoch,  such  as  the  interior  of  the  Lonja 
or  silk  merchants'  Exchange  at  Valencia. 

The  last  section  of  this  chapter  deals  with  the  architect- 
ure of  the  Italian  Renaissance,  which  was  contemporary 
with  the  florid  Gothic  of  the  rest  of  Europe.  In  Spain 
and  Portugal  the  direct  influence  of  the  changes  in  Italy 
are  to  be  seen  at  a  much  earlier  time  than  in  France,  Ger- 
many, or  England.  They  are,  of  course,  contemporary 
with  many  florid  Gothic  structures;  thus,  at  Valladolid, 
the  two  large,  square  courts  of  the  two  ecclesiastical 
colleges,  S.  Gregorio  and  Santa  Cruz,  are  of  almost  exactly 
the  same  date  (1480- 1490).  In  S.  Gregorio  the  work  is 
not  unlike  contemporary  work  in  France,  such  as  the  cov- 
ered arcades  of  Blois ;  the  shafts  of  the  columns  are  deco- 
rated with  shallow  channelling  arranged  spirally;  the 
arches  are  elliptical  in  shape  and  moulded  richly ;  the 
parapets  are  of  pierced  tracery;  the  water  of  the  roof  is 
carried  off  by  gargoyles  of  mediaeval  look ;  in  the  whole 
structure  there  is  not  the  smallest  reference  to  ancient 
Roman  architecture.  At  Santa  Cruz,  on  the  other  hand,  a 
severe  classic  feeling  prevails :  it  is  evident  that  such  a 
structure  could  never  have  existed  at  such  a  time  but  as 
the  immediate  result  of  the  Florentine  architecture  of  the 
preceding  half-century.  There  is  no  such  phenomenon  as 
this  anywhere  north  of  the  Pyrenees  and  the  Alps. 


2A 


354  WESTERN  EUROPE,  1420  TO   1520  A.D.  [Chap.  VII 


III 

In  Germany,  the  middle  part  of  the  fifteenth  century 
saw  the  erection  of  some  splendid  church  towers.  That 
of  the  cathedral  of  Ulm  and  that  of  Frankfurt  on  the  Main 
are  of  about  1450;  that  of  Strasburg,  the  most  famous  of 
all  and  the  highest  ancient  tower  in  Europe,  is  a  few  years 
earlier  in  date.  The  spire  of  the  church  of  S.  Mary  (Lieb- 
frauen  Kirche)  at  Wiirzburg  is  of  1479;  that  of  Thann  in 
Alsace  is  somewhat  later,  and  that  of  S.  Stephen  at  Vienna 
is  again  earlier  in  date.  These  buildings  are  mentioned 
together,  although  varying  in  time  of  construction  through 
half  a  century,  because  all  but  one  of  them  are  roof-shaped, 
while  the  spire  of  Strasburg,  like  that  of  Antwerp,  de- 
scribed above,  is  not  in  any  respect  a  roof  to  the  tower 
which  it  crowns.  These  two  famous  spires  are  not  even 
of  the  shape  of  roofs ;  each  is  of  the  nature  of  a  purely 
decorative  combination  of  bars  of  stone,  resembling  Gothic 
window-tracery,  except  that  it  is  in  three  dimensions  in- 
stead of  lying  in  a  plane.  Viollet-le-Duc  has  reproduced 
a  part  of  the  original  drawing  left  from  the  Middle  Ages, 
according  to  which  the  Strasburg  spire  would  have  been 
a  higher,  a  more  elaborate,  and  a  far  more  logical  con- 
struction than  it  is;  but  even  as  the  truncated  and  sim- 
plified design  was  carried  out  in  stone,  it  is  one  of  the 
most  surprising  and  fascinating  works  of  the  Middle  Ages. 
Eight  sloping  bars  of  stone  carry  a  forest  of  pinnacles, 
which  are  held  together  by  cusped  loops  of  stone,  each 
raking  series  of  pinnacles  forming  a  fringe  or  crest  against 


Sec.  Ill]  GERMANY  355 

the  sky.  In  this  way  the  spire  proper  is  composed ;  but 
the  light  and  open  lantern  below  is  an  essential  part  of  the 
composition,  and  the  whole  structure,  from  the  platform  of 
the  towers  to  the  cross,  must  be  considered  as  one  archi- 
tectural conception.  It  must  be  observed  that  the  spires 
of  the  fifteenth  century  are  generally  blunter  than  those  of 
the  twelfth  and  thirteenth  centuries,  and  that  this  tendency 
to  a  lower  angle  of  slope  is  more  strongly  marked  in  the 
larger  towers,  S.  Stephen's  of  Vienna  being  the  chief  in- 
stance of  an  acutely  pointed  spire  of  large  size.  The 
spires,  which  if  not  roofs  are  still  roofs  in  shape,  are 
pierced  with  traceried  openings  either  in  part  or  through- 
out their  whole  extent. 

Apart  from  the  towers,  the  German  development  of  true 
Gothic  architecture  is  not  supremely  important  in  the  fif- 
teenth century.  It  is  in  the  use  of  other  materials  than 
the  cut  stone  dear  to  Gothic  art  that  the  German  builders 
did  wonders  at  this  time,  leaving  behind  them  works  which 
the  modern  world  has  never  appreciated  rightly.  Nearly 
the  whole  of  north  Germany  is  an  alluvial  plain,  in  which 
building-stones  are  rare,  and  throughout  this  region  a 
brick  architecture  prevailed,  which  reached  its  highest 
pitch,  of  a  somewhat  whimsical  elegance,  about  the  begin- 
ning of  the  fifteenth  century.  A  typical  example  is  the 
church  of  S.  Katherine  at  Brandenburg,  on  the  Havel.  It 
is  interesting,  in  this  church,  to  note  the  earnest  desire  of 
the  builder  to  maintain  the  purity  of  the  Gothic  interior, 
both  in  new  work  of  the  fifteenth  century  and  in  its  adap- 
tation to  the  old,  while  he  allows  the  exterior  to  escape 
from  all  limits  of  style  and  revels  in  gables  and  open  tra- 


356 


WESTERN   EUROPE,   1420  TO    1520  A.D. 


[Chap.  VII 


eery  of  baked  clay.  Many  churches  of  the  fourteenth  and 
fifteenth  centuries  are  built  of  brick  and  terra  cotta,  but  the 
buildings  which  make  the  most  impression  are  the  civic 
and  half-military  structures  of  the  time  and  the  private 
houses.     Thus  at  Tangermunde,  north  of  Magdeburg,  the 


Fig.  188.     Hanover,  Germany :  Rathhaus.     Finished  1455. 


church  of  S.  Stephen  is  akin  in  style  to  the  above-cited 
church  at  Brandenburg,  but  the  visitor  is  more  struck  by 
the  ramparts  of  the  town,  and  especially  by  one  or  two  of 
the  gateways,  with  their  round  towers,  battlements,  and 
machicolated  balconies  of  defence,  all  executed  in  brick  of 
several  colours,  and  wrought  into  the  most  diversified 
forms.     The  fortification  of  Stendal  in  the  Mark  of  Bran- 


Sec.  IV]  ENGLAND  357 

denburg  and  of  the  neighbouring  Werben  offer  similar 
instances  of  military  construction  of  brick  treated  in  a 
decorative  way.  The  Rathhaus  of  Hanover  is  one  of  the 
most  valuable  of  the  civic  buildings  in  brick;  it  was  re- 
stored in  a  very  trustworthy  manner  about  1870,  and  is 
put  to  its  original  uses,  even  to  the  Rathskeller  beneath. 
Figure  i88  shows  the  principal  building  of  the  Hanover 
Rathhaus,  which  is  made  up  in  the  true  mediaeval  way  of 
separately  roofed,  oblong  gabled  buildings,  adjoining  and 
combined  in  one  design.  The  cities  of  north  Germany 
are  rich  in  private  houses  of  this  epoch,  many  of  them 
almost  wholly  of  brick. 

The  buildings  framed  in  timber  were  numerous  and 
important  in  the  fifteenth  century,  but  the  greater  number 
of  them  have  been,  if  not  destroyed,  at  least  changed  in 
character  by  later  work.  A  very  large  house  at  Halber- 
stadt  may  be  mentioned  as  having  a  certain  date  of  1 500, 
but  after  the  close  of  our  present  epoch,  1520,  such  build- 
ings are  more  numerous  and  finer. 

IV 

In  England  the  year  1420  marks  exactly  enough  the 
beginning  of  that  long  period  of  modified  Gothic  archi- 
tecture which  under  the  later  names  of  Tudor  and  Eliza- 
bethan was  to  last  far  into  modern  times.  More  than  two 
hundred  years  later,  Gothic  forms  were  still  used  natu- 
rally and  in  due  order  of  development ;  the  Great  Rebel- 
lion alone  checked  the  continuous  practice  of  architecture 
according  to   Gothic   traditions,  and   even  the    architects 


358  WESTERN  EUROPE,  1420  TO    1520  A.D.  [Chap.  VII 

of  the  Restoration  tried  to  perpetuate  them.  In  1420  the 
Perpendicular  style  as  described  in  the  last  chapter  was  in 
its  full  development  and  was  practised  universally  through- 
out England  and  Scotland.  The  well-known  church  of 
Fotheringhay,  Northamptonshire,  of  which  the  nave  alone 
remains,  but  which  is  an  admitted  model  of  the  style  in 
spite  of  some  solecisms,  is  of  1434.  This  church  has  a 
lantern  or  eight-sided  light  pavilion  erected  upon  its 
square  tower,  but  there  are  no  preparations  for  a  spire. 
The  tower  of  S.  Botolph's  church  at  Boston,  Lincoln- 
shire, is  topped  in  the  same  way,  and  is  even  more 
celebrated,  this  being  indeed  the  principal  example  of  a 
church  tower  of  this  design.  It  is  probably  of  the  same 
date  as  the  tower  of  Fotheringhay,  although  the  body  of 
the  church  is  much  earlier.  The  lantern  at  Boston  is 
flanked  by  four  large  pinnacles  erected  on  the  four  angles 
of  the  square  tower,  and  from  each  pinnacle  two  flying 
buttresses  stretch  to  the  two  nearest  angles  of  the  lantern. 
This  manner  of  using  such  purely  constructional  features 
as  mere  ornaments  is  a  sign  of  a  certain  unreality  in  the 
work :  the  true  Gothic  spirit  allows  no  such  vagaries.  In 
these  towers  the  eight  small  pinnacles  of  the  lantern  are 
also  mere  ornaments,  having  lost  even  their  true  decora- 
tive character  as  forming  a  third  member  in  the  propor- 
tion between  tower  and  spire.  Taunton  church  tower, 
illustrated  here  from  a  drawing  made  before  the  recent 
restorations,  is  a  perfect  type  of  the  more  usual  perpendic- 
ular tower.  This  fine  tower,  shown  in  Fig.  189,  is  some- 
what later,  and  is  generally  considered  to  be  of  about  1 500. 
The  late  epoch  is,  however,  visible  only  in  some  minor 


t:':;ji,---  X 


Fig.  189.     Taunton,  England:  S.  Mary  Magdalen.     Close  of  fifteenth  century. 


360  WESTERN   EUROPE,  1420  TO    1520  A.D.  [Chap.  VII 

details,  and  the  general  character  of  the  building  is  as 
purely  perpendicular  as  if  it  had  been  a  century  earlier. 
This  slowness  to  change  is  characteristic  of  the  later 
English  Gothic,  and  is,  of  course,  a  necessary  part  of  its 
unexampled  duration.  England  is  full  of  churches  of 
characteristic  Perpendicular  style ;  some  vaulted,  many 
more  with  wooden  ceilings.  These  are  all  very  similar, 
however,  in  external  treatment,  with  broad  low  windows 
closed  with  four-centred  arches  and  filled  with  perpen- 
dicular tracery,  flat  roofs  and  battlements  and  pinnacles 
showing  against  the  sky.  Such  a  church  is  that  of  Fair- 
ford,  Gloucestershire,  to  which  travellers  go  from  London 
to  see  the  splendid  stained  glass  windows  of  the  sixteenth 
century.  The  tower  is  heavy  and  unrefined  in  style,  but 
the  body  of  the  church  is  of  great  beauty. 

From  1430  to  1500  the  vaulting  of  English  churches 
went  through  some  very  surprising  changes.  It  grew 
much  lower  and  flatter  in  curve.  Thus  if  the  main  rib 
across  the  nave  in  a  vault  of  1425  is  an  ordinary  two- 
centred  arch,  the  vault  of  1440  is  often  drawn  according 
to  a  four-centred  curve  (see  the  Glossary,  s.  v.  Arch). 
If,  now,  such  a  vault  is  flattened  still  more,  it  tends  to 
become  a  three-centred  arch,  as  in  Fig.  189  A,  in  which  an 
interior  of  about  1465  shows  the  peculiar  vaulting  of  the 
time  as  well  as  the  large  four-centred  windows,  filled  with 
perpendicular  tracery.  The  Divinity  School  at  Oxford, 
built  about  1450,  is  an  instance  of  a  roof  whose  general 
shape  is  that  of  a  flat  ceiling  with  ornamental  pendants 
formed  of  deep  ribs  like  those  of  an  umbrella  hanging 
from  it ;  but  this  whole  ceiling  is  supported  by  very  mas- 


Sec.  IV] 


ENGLAND 


361 


sive  four-centred  arches  which  cross  the  building  from 
side  to  side.  This  is  a  curious  return  to  the  transverse 
arches  of  the  early  Romanesque  vaults.     Such  vaulting  is 


Fig.  189  a.     Warwick,  England  :  Beauchamp  Chapel.     Finished  1464  A. D. 

of  extremely  decorative  effect,  but  is  weak  and  incapable 
of  being  built  in  wide  spans. 

The  next  step  was  in  the  direction  of  that  curious  ten- 
dency of  all  English  Gothic  vaulting  to  develop  into  a 
series  of  half-pyramids  which  has  been  spoken  of  above, 


362  WESTERN  EUROPE,  1420  TO   1520  A.D.  [Chap.  VII 

pages  240,  303.  Figure  190  shows  a  part  of  the  outer 
vestibule  which  leads  to  the  hall  of  Christ  Church  Col- 
lege, Oxford.^  The  strong  transverse  arch  is  still  retained ; 
but  apart  from  this,  the  system  of  vaulting  is  seen  to  have 
developed  itself  from  half-pyramids  to  half-cones.  These 
half-cones  meet  a  horizontal  plane  at  or  near  the  point  of 
the  transverse  arch  in  a  series  of  half-circles,  and  all  the 
flat  surface  between  these  half-circles  is  really  flat  ceiling 
of  stone  supported  by  ingenious  constructional  devices. 
In  such  vaulting  as  this  the  ribs  tend  to  become  mere 
decorative  features.  In  Fig.  190  the  only  ribs  which  are 
constructional  are  probably  the  great  transverse  arch 
above  spoken  of  and  the  wall  arches,  which  are  seen  to 
be  four-centred  in  shape.  Probably  all  the  rest  of  the 
vault  is  built  of  rather  larger  pieces  of  cut  stone  with  the 
ribs  worked  on  the  surface.  There  is  then  a  marked 
tendency  to  abandon  Gothic  vaulting  altogether,  and  to 
reach  the  desired  comparative  flatness  of  roof  by  resort- 
ing to  the  use  of  large  blocks  of  stone  requiring  great 
skill  and  command  of  means  for  their  proper  manage- 
ment. Figure  191  gives  the  construction  of  the  roof  of 
S.  George's  Chapel  at  Windsor,  in  which  it  will  be  seen 
that  the  sides  of  the  vault  where  the  curve  is  more  de- 
cided are  built  with  ribs  and  filled  in  behind  with  rough 
masonry  in  the  true  mediaeval  fashion,  while  the  middle 
part,  where    the    curve    approaches    flatness,  is    built    of 

1  This  vestibule  of  the  hall  at  Christ  Church  was  not  built  until  the  first  half 
of  the  seventeenth  century.  It  is  illustrative  here  of  the  developed  fan-vaulting, 
and  it  may  serve  to  explain,  in  connection  with  Chapter  VIII.,  the  extraordinary 
survival  of  Gothic  forms  in  England. 


Sec.  IV] 


ENGLAND 


363 


Fig.  190.     Oxford,  England :  Christ  Church  College,     Vestibule  to  the  hall.     1640  A.D. 
In  imitation  of  earlier  work. 


blocks  of  stone  without  ribs.^     Here,  too,  it  will  be  seen 

^  Professor  Willis,  the  author  of  this  drawing,  points  out  in  the  accompanying 
text  (Transaction  of  the  Royal  Institute  of  British  Architects  for  1842)  that  he 
has  omitted  the  central  hollow  pendant,  and  that,  therefore,  this  drawing,  though 
taken  from  the  choir,  resembles  the  vault  of  the  nave. 


364 


WESTERN   EUROPE,  1420  TO    1520  A.D. 


[Chap.  VII 


that  the  main  cun^e  of  the  vault  is  three-centred  and 
very  low  in  proportion  to  its  span.  This  fan-vaulting  is 
one  of  the  most  beautiful  of  architectural  conceptions ;  it 
is  varied  and  modified  in  many  ways,  but  it  never  fails 
to  charm.  The  three  most  important  interiors  that  are 
closed  in   this  way  are  those   of   S.  George's    Chapel    at 


Fig.  191.     Windsor  Castle,  England :    S.  George's  Chapel.     Construction  of  choir  roof. 

About  15 10. 

Windsor  Castle,  the  chapel  of  Henry  VII.  at  Westminster 
Abbey,  and  King's  College  Chapel  at  Cambridge ;  but 
beside  these  there  are  parts  of  Gloucester,  Oxford,  Ely, 
Canterbury,  and  other  cathedrals  and  numerous  minor 
buildings,  roofed  in  this  way,  of  which  the  cloisters  of 
Gloucester  Cathedral  are  perhaps  the  most  notable. 
Probably  the  most  beautiful  of  all   these    roofs,  as   it   is 


PLATE     VIII.  CHAPEL    OF    KING'S   COLLEGE,    CAMBRIDGE,    ENGLAND 

Walls  built  about    1450-80.     Vaulting   about    1510.     Interior,    Looking   east. 


Sec.  V]  ITALY  365 

the  most  important  in  size  and  dignity,  is  that  of  King's 
College  Chapel  (see  Plate  VIII.).  This  interior  may  claim 
to  be  the  finest  in  England,  and  is  capable  of  comparison 
with  the  most  splendid  cathedral  interiors  of  the  continent. 
The  late  Gothic  of  the  years  from  1440,  freely  adopted 
for  domestic  and  civic  purposes,  gives  us  the  style  so 
familiar  to  all  in  the  college  buildings  of  Cambridge 
and  Oxford.  This  is  prolonged  far  into  the  sixteenth 
century  and  passes  imperceptibly  into  the  Tudor  style. 
It  has,  of  course,  no  influence  on  the  growth  and  de- 
velopment of  architecture,  being  a  mere  reproduction,  in 
the  outer  walls  of  otherwise  plain  buildings,  of  the  forms 
arrived  at  in  the  course  of  more  elaborate  work,  but  it 
expresses  to  the  full  that  spirit  of  simple  dignity  which 
is  so  characteristic  of  the  English  design  of  this  age  of 
transition.  The  timber-framed  architecture  also,  char- 
acteristic in  the  fifteenth  century  of  England  as  it  is 
of  Germany,  exists  for  us  in  greater  quantity  of  the  six- 
teenth century,  and  the  consideration  of  it  had  better  be 
deferred. 


V 

In  Italy  the  true  pointed  Gothic  style  had  never  been 
thoroughly  at  home.  Undoubtedly  one  cause  of  this  was 
the  indifference  of  Italians  as  a  people  to  the  purely  con- 
structional and  highly  organized  architecture  of  the 
North;  another  cause  was  the  dislike  of  many  sculptors 
for  a  style  identified  with  somewhat  rude  and  semi-bar- 
baric sculpture;  but  the  chief  cause  was  the  presence  in 


366  WESTERN  EUROPE,  1420  TO   1520  A.D.  [Chap.  VII 

the  cities  of  Italy  of  gigantic  buildings  of  the  Roman 
Empire,  ruined  by  those  who  had  plundered  their  mar- 
bles and  their  metal-work,  but  far  more  complete  than 
we  see  them  in  the  nineteenth  century.  These  build- 
ings were  of  a  size  and  dignity  beyond  the  mediaeval 
buildings  of  Italy,  except  two  or  three  half-finished  cathe- 
drals ;  and  their  massiveness  was,  of  course,  wholly  unri- 
valled. Moreover,  there  clung  about  them  the  traditions 
of  the  undying  majesty  of  ancient  Rome. 

When,  therefore,  men's  minds  were  turned  toward  a 
revival  of  classical  learning,  as  they  were  more  and 
more,  continually,  during  the  years  following  1400,  there 
were  found  some  among  the  younger  students  of  build- 
ing and  engineering  who  were  eager  to  study  the  Roman 
monuments  thoroughly,  and  with  a  view  to  working  in 
the  same  style.  These  students  of  building  were  gener- 
ally sculptors,  often  woodworkers  and  inlayers,  often  gold- 
smiths, often  painters.  It  was  perhaps  the  general  rule 
that  their  skill  in  the  art  or  handicraft  came  first  in 
their  own  and  the  public's  estimation :  their  skill  in 
building  second,  and  rather  assumed  than  real.  In  their 
capacity  as  sculptors  or  painters  of  the  figure  and  of 
biblical  or  legendary  or  allegorical  subject,  antiquity  had 
but  little  direct  influence  upon  them.  The  movement 
toward  greater  life  and  freedom  in  those  arts  and  a  far 
closer  study  of  nature  had  begun  long  before.  Niccolo 
Pisano,  as  early  as  1250,  had  made  a  great  step  in  that 
direction,  and  Giovanni  Pisano  and  Andrea  Pisano  had 
followed  him.  Giotto  in  1300  was  already  a  painter  in 
the  modern   sense.     In    1420,  when   our  present  enquiry 


Sec.  V]  ITALY  367 

begins,  Brunallesco  was  forty-eight  years  old,  Lorenzo 
Ghiberti  was  forty-seven,  and  the  great  Donatello  was 
thirty-nine :  their  work  as  sculptors  was  well  begun. 
Among  famous  painters,  Fra  Angelico  and  Gentile  da 
Fabriano  were  in  middle  life,  and  Masolino  and  Masac- 
cio,  though  younger,  were  at  work.  Besides  Giotto  and 
the  Pisani,  Simone  Martini,  Arnolfo  di  Cambio  and  Or- 
cagna  were  dead,  and  their  work  was  before  the  world. 
Fine  art,  as  we  moderns  understand  it,  existed  full  of 
knowledge  and  strength  ;  still  to  grow  greater  before  its 
decay  should  begin,  but  already  great.  The  painters  and 
the  sculptors  were  busy  and  full  of  hope  and  ambition 
in  their  especial  arts.  In  their  practice  as  yet  no  influ- 
ence from  antiquity  was  visible  except  the  slight  stimulus 
gained  from  a  few  sarcophagi  and  other  sculptured  frag- 
ments ;  works  of  a  low  grade  which  were  calculated  to 
excite  wonder  and  envy  by  the  dexterity  of  the  ancient 
workmen,  but  hardly  any  warm  sympathy  for  the  ancient 
art.  With  their  work  as  builders  it  was  different.  There 
was  not  much  doing  in  the  way  of  fine  buildings ;  money 
and  skill  were  mainly  spent  upon  fortifications  and  bridges. 
Moreover,  in  spite  of  the  splendid  neo-Gothic  art,  wl\ich 
was  taking  shape  in  and  about  the  cathedral  of  Florence, 
the  Italian  students  of  architecture  were  dissatisfied  and 
restless.  Their  art,  in  its  half-understood  northern  form, 
was  not  to  them  what  sculpture  was  to  Donatello  or 
fresco  painting  to  Masaccio,  an  art  worthy  of  all  their 
strength,  and  demanding  it  all.  They  longed  for  a  dimly 
seen  revival  of  the  Roman  Empire  in  its  architectural 
splendours.     The  younger  men  were  eager  to  reproduce 


368  WESTERN  EUROPE,  1420  TO   1520  A.D.  [Chap.  VII 

Roman   forms    as   they  found    them  or  conceived    them, 
and  Roman  grandeur  as  they  understood  it. 

Among  these  younger  men  was  PhiHppo  di  Ser  Brunel- 
lesco,  an  able  sculptor  in  1401,  and  one  of  those  who,  in 
that  year,  had  competed  in  the  matter  of  the  third  pair  of 
doors  for  the  Florentine  Baptistery.  When  Ghiberti  had 
been  successful  in  this  competition,  Brunellesco  went  to 
Rome  to  study  ancient  buildings.  Returning  to  Florence 
at  some  time  before  141 5,  he  proposed  to  finish  the  cathe- 
dral by  roofing  the  great  octagon  (see  Fig.  166  B),  not  as 
it  had  been  contemplated,  but  in  a  more  classical  taste. 
About  1420  work  upon  this  began  under  his  direction, 
and  the  present  cupola  was  the  result.  This  is  one  of  the 
greatest  achievements  in  architectural  art.  The  cupola 
of  the  Pantheon  at  Rome,  the  largest  one  known  and 
obviously  Brunellesco's  chief  inspiration,  is  circular,  is 
supported  by  a  massive  circular  wall,  and  is  kept  in  place 
by  enormous  masses  of  masonry  piled  upon  its  haunches. 
The  dome  of  the  so-called  temple  of  Minerva  Medica  is 
much  smaller,  and  this,  and  all  other  Roman  domes  which 
Brunellesco  could  have  studied,  are  of  a  massiveness 
wh^ch  he  did  not  try  to  rival.  We  have  no  reason  to 
suppose  that  he  studied  H.  Sophia  at  Constantinople  or 
other  Byzantine  examples,  and  no  cupolas  properly  so 
called  had  been  built  in  western  Europe  during  the 
Middle  Ages.  Brunellesco's  work  was  a  marvel  of  inven- 
tion and  boldness,  for  his  dome,  only  two  feet  less  in 
diameter  than  that  of  the  Pantheon,  is  light  and  lofty, 
octagonal  instead  of  round,  and  raised  upon  a  high  octag- 
onal drum,  which  rests  upon  open  arches.     This  cupola 


Sec.  V]  ITALY  369 

was  calculated,  also,  to  support  a  terminal  structure  which, 
built  after  Brunellesco's  death,  is  in  itself  a  masonry  build- 
ing eighty  feet  high.  Later  architects,  working  in  the 
same  direction,  have  found  it  very  difficult  to  make  a 
bulging  shell  of  masonry  support  such  a  lantern.  This 
astonishing  feat  must  have  given  Brunellesco  supremacy 
among  the  builders  of  the  day,  but  it  does  not  show  any 
marked  preference  for  Roman  forms.  He  had  gained  in- 
spiration from  them  in  the  right  way,  and  in  the  right  way 
had  designed  and  built  an  original  work.  In  the  Pazzi 
chapel,  adjoining  the  church  of  S.  Croce  in  Florence,  the 
Roman  details  appeared,  probably,  for  the  first  time  (see 
Fig.  192).  The  vaulting  here  is  Roman  in  principle; 
that  is  to  say  it  is  built  as  a  single  arched  shell 
without  ribs ;  but  such  vaulting  was  a  commonplace  of 
Italian  building,  and  was  free  to  any  one  to  use :  the 
Roman  imitation  appears  in  the  decoration  of  the  surface 
of  this  vault  by  coffering  in  the  columns  with  Corinthian 
capitals,  the  elaborate  system  of  Corinthian  pilasters  large 
and  small,  and  the  frieze  decorated  with  the  strigil  orna- 
ment copied  from  some  antique  sarcophagus.  This  is  the 
beginning  of  modern  imitative  architecture.  It  is  more- 
over the  only  building,  as  it  appears,  in  which  Brunellesco 
tried  to  use  Roman  forms  as  the  Romans  had  used  them. 
Had  the  church  S.  Maria  degli  Angeli  in  Florence  been 
completed,  the  Roman  experiment  would  have  been  tried 
more  thoroughly  in  it,  but  this  has  remained  a  fragment. 
In  the  church  of  S.  Lorenzo,  built  during  Brunellesco's 
life,  and  that  of  S.  Spirito,  built  after  his  death,  from  his 
plans,  both  in  Florence,  the  Roman  column  is  used,  and  a 


370 


WESTERN   EUROPE,  1420  TO    1520  A.D. 


[Chap.  VII 


semblance  of  the  Roman  entablature  serves  as  a  kind  of 
larger   abacus   or  second    capital,  but  the   arches   spring 

directly      from 
the  columns  in 
a    fashion     not 
identified    with 
the  true  official 
Roman  style  of 
the  second  cen- 
tury (see  Ch.  II), 
and  the  entab- 
lature   is    so 
slight  and  small 
as  to  contradict 
Roman     pro- 
portions      alto- 
gether. Finally, 
in  the  front  of 
the  palace  Paz- 
zi-Quaratesi, 
there    is    noth- 
ing     that     an 
architect  of  the 
Roman  Empire 
could      have 
used.      This   is 
a     palace-front 
of  the  type  fa- 
miliar    to     us, 
with  pointed  arches  and  arcaded  cornices,  in  the  narrow 


Fig.  192.     Florence,  Italy :  Church  of  S.  Croce. 
chapel.     1420  to  1425  a.d. 


Pazzi 


Skc.  V]  ITALY  371 

streets  of  the  Tuscan  towns,  but  with  the  details  changed. 
The  buildings  above  named  are  all  in  Florence,  and  their 
dates  are  not  so  widely  separated  that  they  need  be  distin- 
guished as  marking  eras  in  Brunellesco's  life.  They  were 
all  built  within  twenty-four  years;  except  S.  Spirito,  as  above 
stated.  With  these  was  built  the  beautiful  Loggia  of  the 
Foundling  Hospital  (Spedale  degli  Innocenti),  and  that 
of  S.  Paolo,  the  first  undoubtedly,  the  second  possibly, 
by  Brunellesco;  buildings  altogether  mediaeval  in  form, 
except  that  the  mouldings  have  been  made  to  conform  to 
classic  types,  and  that  the  columns  have  a  partly  classical 
air.^ 

In  these  buildings  the  architecture  of  the  Renaissance 
is  set  before  us,  complete,  as  its  originators  conceived  it. 
Serious  modifications  were  to  be  made,  as  we  shall  see 
below,  by  the  irrepressible  decorative  spirit  of  Lombardy 
and  Venetia,  but  the  Renaissance  proper  is  of  Florence. 
Brunellesco  is  its  great  originator;  but  there  joined  him 
so  promptly  that  they  seem  to  have  been  notified  in 
advance,  Michelozzo  Michelozzi,  who  built  for  the  Medici 
that  palace  which  we  now  call  the  Riccardi  palace,  An- 
tonio Filarete,  and  Leo  Baptista  Alberti.  Of  these  the 
last  is  the  ideal  scholar  in  architecture,  the  man  of 
thought,  the  philosopher,  the  man  interested  in  the  lite- 
rary revival.  It  is  in  accordance  with  this  character  of 
the  man  that  his  best  known  work,  the  Malatesta  Temple 

^  The  vaulting  of  these  arcades  is  not  built  with  ribs,  but  is  solid  groined 
vaulting.  In  Italy,  however,  this  way  of  building  vaults  had  never  been  aban- 
doned, and  was  freely  used  for  structures  not  decorative  in  character,  and  wher- 
ever northern  Gothic  art  was  not  deliberately  copied. 


372 


WESTERN   EUROPE,  1420  TO    1520  A.D. 


[Chap.   VII 


at  Rimini,  was  designed  to  have  a  front  copied  closely 
from  an  ancient  triumphal  arch.  Brunellesco  would 
hardly  have  done  that.  As  we  have  seen,  not  knowing 
what  a  Roman  house-front  would  be  like,  he  designed  one 
for  himself  in  the  Pazzi-Quaratesi  Palace,  developing  types 
certainly  not  classic.  When  Alberti  had  a  house-front  to 
design,  he  was  not  satisfied  so  easily:  he  could  not  miss 
this  opportunity  to  use  pilasters,  and  accordingly  the 
Palazzo  Ruccellai  in  Florence  has  three  orders  of  Roman 


Fig.  193.     Mantua,  Italy:    Church  of  S.  Andrea.     About  1475  A.D.     Plan. 


details.  Alberti  could  design  independently,  however ; 
his  front  of  S.  Maria  Novella  at  Florence  is  an  admi- 
rable example  of  the  church-front  made  decorative  by 
mediaeval  arcades  and  inlaying,  though  not  in  mediaeval 
patterns.  His  master-work  is  undoubtedly  the  church  of 
S.  Andrea  at  Mantua.  The  plan  of  this  church  is  what 
is  most  interesting  to  the  student  (see  Fig.  193).  It  is 
evident  that  Alberti  had  in  mind  the  massive  piers  and 
the  plain  barrel-vaults  of  the  Roman  thermae,  and  felt  the 
need  of  reproducing  their  appearance,  though  the  actual 


Sec.  V]  ITALY  373 

ponderous  construction  was  not  within  his  reach.  The 
square  masses  of  masonry  which  divide  the  larger  chapels 
are  made  to  pass  for  the  huge  solid  piers  of  a  Roman  hall, 
though  each  of  them,  in  the  Mantuan  church,  encloses  a 
smaller  chapel.  Barrel-vaults  spring  from  one  to  the 
other  of  these  piers  and  roof  the  larger  chapels,  and  a 
barrel-vault  of  fifty  feet  span  roofs  the  nave.  The  walls 
are  not  really  very  thick,  and  the  true  lightness  of  con- 
struction is  seen  in  the  cupola  and  its  lofty  drum,  which, 
though  probably  not  built  during  Alberti's  life,  are  cer- 
tainly of  the  original  design. 

The  four  architects  named  above  were  contemporaries 
for  some  twenty  years  of  active  life,  and  their  achieve- 
ments precede  by  twenty  years  those  of  all  their  rivals 
in  the  roll  of  honour  of  the  Renaissance.  In  one  respect 
their  example  was  not  followed  by  their  immediate  suc- 
cessors, in  this,  that  they  avoided  as  far  as  might  be 
architectural  sculpture  as  a  part  of  their  general  design. 
They  had  misread,  or  Brunellesco  misinterpreted  for  them, 
the  record  of  the  Roman  monuments.  They  at  the  same 
time  rejected  the  splendid  architectural  sculpture  con- 
tained in  the  later  Gothic  work  of  Italy,  as  at  Orvieto, 
Verona,  Venice,  and  Florence,  and  ignored  the  large 
panels  of  relief  sculpture,  the  scrolls  and  festoons  which 
make  up  the  ornamentation  of  the  Roman  buildings. 
Brunellesco's  most  costly  building,  the  well-known  Pitti 
Palace,  contains  absolutely  no  external  sculpture.  The 
palaces  named  above,  Pazzi,  Riccardi,  Ruccellai ;  the 
fa9ade  of  S.  Andrea,  the  interiors  of  S.  Lorenzo  and 
S.  Spirito,  contain  nothing  in  the  way  of  sculpture  except 


374  WESTERN   EUROPE,  1420  TO    1520   A.D,  [Chap.  VII 

the  acanthus  leaves  in  capitals  which  the  order  adopted 
called  for  absolutely.  It  is  evident  that  these  artists 
had  in  mind  the  procuring  of  architectural  effects  by- 
means  of  proportion  alone.  To  make  a  flat  wall  on  a 
narrow  street  into  a  work  of  art  by  the  simple  means  of 
dividing  it  by  string-courses  into  horizontal  bands  and 
then  arranging  simple  windows  in  those  bands  in  per- 
fectly uniform  series ;  to  produce  in  a  church  an  interior 
effect  of  grace  and  grandeur  by  the  proportioning  of 
width  to  height,  column  to  arch,  aisle  to  nave ;  to  reject 
at  once  the  constructional  interest  and  the  sculpturesque 
adornment  of  the  construction  which  the  Middle  Ages 
had  bequeathed,  —  all  this  seemed  to  them  the  dignified 
and  stately,  the  Roman,  and  therefore  the  only  right  way. 

When,  however,  the  news  of  the  innovation  reached 
the  North,  the  Lombards  and  the  Venetians  welcomed 
only  a  part  of  it.  Michelozzo  himself,  when  from  Flor- 
ence he  removed  to  Milan,  was  compelled  to  reconsider 
his  theory  as  it  stands  embodied  in  the  Riccardi  palace, 
and  to  accept  architecture  with  sculptured  ornament  freely 
used.  Fra  Giocondo  and,  after  him,  Bramante  were  ready 
to  follow  in  the  path  pointed  out  by  the  Tuscans,  but 
insisted  upon  taking  their  ornamentation  with  them ; 
and  there  were  less-known  artists  in  the  cities  of  north 
Italy  who  preferred  to  mingle  with  the  classic  details 
something  of  that  which  they  had  learned  in  their  youth. 
They  kept  the  luxuriance  of  mediaeval  sculpture,  though 
they  changed  its  form.  They  substituted  the  panelled 
pilaster  for  the  Gothic  colonette,  and  then  filled  the 
panel  with   sculpture  whose   suggestion  was  taken  from 


Sec.  V] 


ITALY 


375 


Roman  arabesques  (see  Fig.  194);  moreover,  as  the  Gothic 
architects  had  avoided  sculpture  other  than  that  appHed 
to  constructional  features,  and  had  rather  avoided  panels 
of  bas-relief  put  up  as  we 
put  up  a  picture  for  the 
sake  of  the  work  itself,  this 
is  what  the  fifteenth-cen- 
tury men  especially  affected 
(see  Fig.  195).  In  Venice 
they  used  circles  and 
squares  of  coloured  marble 
to  help  in  this  application 
of  rich  ornament  to  their 
walls.  In  Venice  and  in 
Vicenza  they  painted  their 
external  walls.  At  the 
Certosa  near  Pavia  they 
filled  a  church-front  as  full 
as  it  would  hold  of  de- 
scriptive sculpture ;  bas- 
reliefs  in  which  biblical 
and  legendary  subject  were 
freely  treated.  In  the 
Scuola  di  San  Marco  at 
Venice  they  amused  them- 
selves with  bas-reliefs  of 
architecture  shown  in  per- 
spective. In  the  Bank  of  the  Medici  of  Milan  they  filled 
the  spandrels  with  portrait  medallions  and  flanked  the 
pilasters  of  the  doorways  with  statues   as  like   mediaeval 


^ 

|p,ijj,;i|^,,!;;,i«wiil"i::p-";ii«i."!B/iv||{™^                                              1 

,  ^^^ ^         __                                                ,        S 

""-— —  ■■■=^ ^ .^ ■■ -_-.-' .'  -i.j-._   -\_^ 

^                         \                         (                          ?     .       .      .      . 

Fig.  194.    Certosa, near  Pavia,  Italy:  Church. 
Detail  of  front.     About  1475  A.D. 


376 


WESTERN   EUROPE,    1420  TO    1520  A.D. 


[Chap.  VII 


portal  statues  as  pseudo-classical  costume  would  allow. 
In  the  Cappella  Colleoni  at  Bergamo  they  filled  what 
seemed  to  be  window  openings  with  colonettes  of  differ- 
ent elaborate  patterns  and  set  upon  these  a  row  of  little 
pilasters,  as  if  trying  for  the  effect  of  the  mediaeval  arcades 
which  they  had  rejected ;  and  the  arcade  itself,  not  to  be 


Fig.  195.     Arabesque :  North  Italian  work.     Beginning  of  sixteenth  century. 

excluded  longer,  appears  in  the  crowning  story.  At  the 
church  of  the  Miracoli  at  Brescia  the  panels  filled  with 
arabesques,  which  are  freely  used  elsewhere,  cover  the 
whole  front.  In  all  these  buildings  and  in  the  cathedral 
of  Como,  in  S.  Maria  delle  Grazie  at  Milan,  in  the  Casa 
Stanga  at  Cremona,  in  the  court  of  the  Palazzo  Vecchio 
at    Florence,    and    in    a   hundred    other   monuments,  the 


Sec.  V]  ITALY  377 

columns  and  the  colonettes  have  their  shafts  sculptured 
as  richly  as  it  was  possible  to  carve  them. 

The  Italians  have  never  been  an  architectural  people  in 
the  highest  sense.  No  great  style  of  architecture  has 
originated  in  Italy ;  nothing  that  can  compare  with  Greek 
or  Byzantine,  early  Egyptian  or  Gothic.  An  artistic  race 
is  not  necessarily  great  in  architecture,  nor,  on  the  other 
hand,  are  good  builders  necessarily  good  architects.  The 
Roman  engineers  of  the  Empire  were  excellent  builders ; 
the  Italians  of  the  fifteenth  century  were  an  artistic  race  of 
the  highest  gifts  and  in  the  noblest  mood  of  devotion  to 
art,  their  work  in  painting,  from  walls  to  manuscripts,  and 
in  sculpture,  from  colossi  to  sword-hilts,  was  unequalled  by 
any  work  done  since  the  great  times  of  Greece  ;  but  to 
neither  set  of  men  was  it  given  to  create  a  great  archi- 
tectural style.  The  nearest  approach  to  it  was  probably 
the  work  of  those  artists  who  in  Venice  and  the  neighbour- 
ing cities  rejected  the  pointed  arch,  the  ribbed  vault,  and 
the  clustered  pier,  but  kept  the  mediaeval  framework  in 
other  respects,  and  adorned  this  as  seemed  to  them  good 
with  sculpture  of  human  subject  and  of  pure  ornament 
freely  intermingled.  This  school  of  art  may  be  repre- 
sented, as  to  its  simple  type,  by  S.  Zaccaria  at  Venice, 
built  between  1456  and  the  end  of  the  century.  Figure 
1 96  gives  its  front,  which  has  the  fault,  common  to  so  many 
Italian  churches,  of  being  a  fa9ade  only,  and  not  the  natural 
and  inevitable  facing  of  the  wall  in  which  is  the  principal 
entrance,  and  this  fact  alone  shows  how  far  away  was  the 
possibility  of  a  great  style  of  architecture  growing  out  of 
the  renaissance  work.     The  front,  considered  as  an  inde- 


378 


WESTERN   EUROPE,  1420  TO    1520   A.D. 


[Chap.  VII 


pendent  architectural  design,  is  beautiful  and  deserves  the 
praise  which  has  been  lavished  upon  it.  The  richer  type  is 
seen  in  the  fa9ade  of  the  church  in  the  famous  Certosa  or  con- 


FiG.  196.     Venice,  Italy:  Church  of  S.  Zaccaria.     Fagade.     About  1490  a.d. 

vent  of  Carthusians  near  Pavia  already  cited.  It  is  crowned 
with  ornament  delicately  sculptured  in  relief  and  also  inlaid, 
and  among  its  ornament  are  many  statues  and  extensive  and 
elaborate  compositions  in  relief  telling  the  Bible  story,  the 


Sec.  V]  ITALY  379 

legendary  stories  of  the  Carthusian  fathers,  and  the  memo- 
rials of  Giovanni  Galeazzo  of  the  Visconti.  In  this  front 
the  attempt  to  combine  sculpture  with  architectural  forms 
is  as  seriously  made  as  in  a  Gothic  cathedral.  There  are 
a  few  evidences  of  uncertainty  as  to  where  the  richest 
sculpture  should  be  placed  and  as  to  how  statues  could  be 
combined  with  relief  sculpture  for  the  double  purpose  of 
the  religious  and  traditional  record  and  the  decorative 
effect.  These  uncertainties  are  the  inevitable  signs  of  a 
new  style  taking  shape,  just  as  the  circular  window  in  the 
square  frame  made  of  pilasters  and  entablature  shows  the 
undeveloped  style.  Had  this  been  a  building  age,  and  had 
the  Milanese  of  1475  been  an  architectural  race  in  the 
sense  in  which  those  terms  are  applied  to  the  year  1250 
and  the  people  of  northern  France,  other  buildings  of  this 
same  decorative  character  would  have  succeeded  to  this 
one,  and  these  uncertainties  would  have  disappeared. 
The  front  of  the  Certosa  Church  must  have  been  com- 
pleted as  we  now  see  it  about  15 10,  but  the  design  dates 
of  course  from  about  the  year  of  its  commencement,  about 
1490.  Ambrogio  da  Fossano  has  been  credited  with  the 
design,  but  it  seems  established  that  Omodeo  rather  de- 
serves the  credit  of  it  as  far  as  this  can  be  ascribed  to 
one  artist. 

The  work  done  by  Donato  Bramante  in  the  north  of 
Italy  must  be  considered  in  this  connection.  It  is  quite 
certain  that  he  built  the  cupola  and  the  apse  of  S.  Maria 
delle  Grazie  before  the  year  1480,  and  the  beautiful  porch 
of  the  same  church  is  probably  his  as  well.  This  porch 
has  been  the  prototype  of  a  hundred  porches  and  is  freely 


38o 


WESTERN   EUROPE,  1420  TO    1520  A.D. 


[Chap.  VII 


copied  to-day,  but  no  one  has  tried  to  rival  the  beautiful 
design  of  the  choir-end  of  the  church,  and  the  sixteen- 
sided  tower  which  crowns  it.  Similar  many-sided  cupolas 
exist  indeed,  such  as  that  of  the  chapel  adjoining  S.  Eustor- 
gio  built  by  Michelozzo  of  Florence  about  1475.  What  was 
to  be  the  ornamentation  of  the  great  panels  which  form 
with  the  windows  a  horizontal    band    around  the  church 

seems    to    be    wholly    un- 
known. 

In  the  main,  the  archi- 
tecture of  the  Renaissance 
in  Italy  is  mediaeval  in  the 
plan  and  general  shape  and 
character  of  its  buildings^ 
as  was  inevitable,  but  a  few 
changes  are  introduced 
which  are  of  peculiar  inter- 
est. Some  of  these  are 
pieces  of  pure  reasonings 
so  far  as  we  can  judge ; 
others  may  be  revivals  or 
survivals  of  earlier  prac- 
tice. The  plan  of  several  North-Italian  churches  is 
of  the  general  character  shown  in  Fig.  197,  the  four 
spaces  A  B  C  D  being  roofed  with  barrel-vaults,  the  cen- 
tral square  with  a  higher  cupola,  the  four  smaller  squares 
with  lower  cupolas  or  with  groined  vaults,  and  the  apse 
with  a  semi-dome.  These  churches  being  generally  small, 
a  single  door  of  entrance  in  the  wall  opposite  to  the  apse 
is  thought  to  suffice.      Such   a  church  is   S.  Fantino  at 


P"" 

Ix 

A 

X 

1 

r          ^1 

1    ^ 

X 

C 

v 

1                 1 

1           1 

[x. 

D 

X 

Fig.   197. 


Sec.  V] 


ITALY 


381 


Fig.  198.    Venice,  Italy :  Church  of  S.  Fantino.   Nave  about  15 lO;  choir  about  1523  a.d. 


Venice,  except  that  here  a  second  square  is  added,  length- 
ening the  nave,  and  that  the  compartment  A  is  roofed  by 
a  cupola  on  pendentives.    The  interior  is  shown  in  Fig.  198. 


382 


WESTERN   EUROPE,  1420  TO    1520  A.D. 


[Chap.  VII 


A  simpler  plan    is    that  of  S.   Maria    Nuova  at   Cortona 
(Fig.  199). 

It  will  be  seen  that  this  plan  is  exactly  that  of  the 
Pretorium  at  Musmiyeh  (Fig.  33).  Another  plan  is  a 
perfect  Greek  cross  in  shape,  each  arm  vaulted  with  a 
barrel-vault,  and  the  central  square  with  a  cupola;  in 
short,  the  plan    Fig.   197,  with    the   four   corner   squares 

omitted  and  the  wall  en- 
closing the  remaining  floor 
space  in  the  shape  of  a 
cross  with  equal  arms. 
The  two  lovely  churches, 
that  of  the  Madonna  di  S. 
Biagio  at  Montepulciano 
and  that  of  the  Madonna 
del  Calcinajo  on  the  hill- 
side near  Cortona,  both  in 
Tuscany,  are  examples  of 
this.  Figure  200  gives  the 
plan  of  the  first-named 
church,  showing  its  severe 
plainness  of  treatment. 
The  complete  dependence 
of  its  designer  is  upon  proportion,  conceived  in  a 
would-be  classical  manner.  A  third  plan  is  a  regular 
octagon,  each  side  occupied  by  a  deep  niche  or  recess 
large  enough  to  form  a  chapel.  The  best  example  of 
this  is  the  important  Church  of  the  Incoronata  at 
Lodi.  A  porch  at  one  side,  where  the  entrance  took  up 
one  of  the  eight  niches,  and  an  apse  at  the  opposite  side 


T^ 

is-i 

1                      ( 

rt 

3 

iB— — ( 

p 

1   1 

c 

'^.  '^^ 

ffl^ 

y- ( 

Im 

^;;;'^ 

l^^^^^^^HH^=^Bi8 

IkVB 

m 

?? 

1 

Jtf 


So 


7^ 


Fig.    199.     Cortona,   Italy:    Church  of  S 
Maria  Nuova.     About  1535  a.d.     Plan. 


Sec.  V] 


ITALY 


383 


replacing  another  niche,  completed  the  plan  of  such  a 
church.  All  these  plans,  and  several  others  in  common 
use,  are  nearly  or  quite  unknown  to  mediaeval  art,  and 
their  invention  or  revival  is  a  sign  of  the  earnest  seek- 
ing in  Italy  for  whatever  in  architecture  was  non-medi- 
aeval and,  therefore,  presumably  classical.  We  are  never 
to  forget  that  this  age  of  splendid  artistic  achievement 
was  an  age  absolutely  uncritical  and  absolutely  devoid 
of  the  archaeological  sense. 
As  for  the  details  of  the 
architecture,  whether  con- 
structional or  purely  deco- 
rative, the  representations 
in  paintings  and  wood-cuts 
of  the  time  must  be  stud- 
ied, as  well  as  the  buildings 
actually  erected.  This 
would  always  be  a  fruitful 
study.  Architecture  is 
that  one  form  of  fine  art 
which  suffers  the  most  from  lack  of  funds.  Nearly 
always  in  the  past,  great  architectural  undertakings 
have  ruined  those  who  had  to  furnish  the  means  for 
them,  or  else  have  remained  incomplete.  The  Roman 
imperial  administration  had  unlimited  means,  and  so  had 
some  of  the  pre-imperial  masters  of  the  Roman  world, 
the  men  who  had  vast  provinces  to  deal  with  and  hun- 
dreds of  thousands  of  captives  to  sell  as  slaves,  —  Sulla 
and  Pompey  and  the  great  Julius.  In  a  quite  different 
way  and  for  a  brief  moment  of  time,  the  cathedral  build- 


FlG.  200.     Montepulciano,   Italy:    Church 
of  S.  Biagio.     1513  A.D.     Plan. 


384  WESTERN  EUROPE,  1420  TO   1520  A.D.  [Chap.  VII 

ers  of  1 200-1 250  seem  to  have  been  able  to  disregard 
the  money  question.  There  are  few  such  epochs  in  his- 
tory, and  the  years  of  the  ItaHan  Renaissance  did  not 
make  up  such  an  epoch ;  all  architectural  effect  was 
hampered  by  lack  of  resources. 

In  August,  1 5 14,  Raphael  was  appointed,  by  especial 
brief,  architect  in  charge  of  the  work  at  S.  Peter's.  In 
appointing  a  painter  to  such  a  position,  mediaeval  and 
early  Renaissance  examples  were  followed,  but  during  the 
century  which  had  just  elapsed  the  arts  had  become  much 
more  differentiated  than  of  old.  This,  indeed,  was  inevi- 
table when  the  work  which  a  painter  was  carrying  on,  and 
which  he  would  have  to  put  to  one  side  when  he  under- 
took sculpture  or  architecture,  was  of  the  character  and 
extent  of  that  which  Raphael  had  had  in  hand  for  the  pre- 
vious six  years.  Raphael's  hand  is  not  very  plainly  seen 
in  S.  Peter's,  and  his  work  upon  the  Loggie  and  the 
vaulted  halls  of  the  Vatican  are  impossible  to  separate 
into  the  work  of  Raphael  and  that  of  his  predecessors. 
Those  predecessors  were  men  of  great  rank  as  architects, 
and  men  whose  character  as  designers  in  architecture  it  is 
impossible  to  mistake.  Donato  Bramante  and  Fra  Gio- 
condo  were  still  living,  and  they  and  their  advice  and 
instruction,  which  they  seem  to  have  been  ready  to  give 
to  the  court  painter  and  the  pope's  especial  favourite, 
are  to  be  considered  in  any  analysis  of  the  work  ascribed 
to  Raphael.  Moreover,  that  great  painter  was  one  who 
worked  easily  as  the  chief  and  organizer  of  a  corps  of 
skilled  assistants.  Raphael  is  said  to  have  made  the 
work  of  Vitruvius    his    special    study   at    this    time,  and 


Sec.  V]  ITALY  385 

it  is  recorded  that  he  had  to  do  with  the  translation  of 
that  book  into  Italian  after  the  death  of  Fra  Giocondo, 
who,  as  we  have  seen  above,  had  interested  himself  in 
the  one  book  on  architecture  which  had  come  down 
from  Roman  antiquity.  It  must  be  remembered  that 
the  work  of  Vitruvius,  "  Ten  Books  upon  Architecture," 
is  far  from  being  an  adequate  treatise  upon  the  Roman 
practice  in  building  in  the  time  of  Augustus,  or  upon 
the  right  way  to  use  Greek  models  and  to  follow 
Greek  example,  or  upon  theories  of  construction,  or  upon 
the  history  of  architecture  in  the  past,  or  upon  abstract 
principles  of  design,  or  upon  his  own  experience  and  prac- 
tice. As  a  large  part  of  the  manuscript  is  devoted  to  for- 
tification, to  roads  and  bridges,  to  water  supply  and  the 
building  of  aqueducts,  and  to  similar  engineering  questions, 
and  another  considerable  part  to  sun-dials,  the  medicinal 
and  hygienic  effect  of  certain  springs  and  rivers,  to  military 
engines  and  other  such  unarchitectural  questions,  the  space 
devoted  to  architectural  design  is  extremely  limited.  The 
style  is  rugged  and  obscure,  and  even  in  our  own  time 
many  passages  remain,  the  exact  meaning  of  which  is  dis- 
puted. It  is  certain  that  to  students  who  did  not  know 
Greek  buildings  at  all  —  for  it  seems  that  even  the  ruins 
at  Paestum  had  attracted  no  attention  —  the  constant  refer- 
ence of  Vitruvius  to  Greek  authority  and  Greek  examples 
would  necessarily  be  misunderstood.  In  an  age  quite  de- 
void of  the  archaeological  sense,  and  possessing  no  science 
of  archaeology,  the  attempt  to  explain  the  Roman  remains 
by  means  of  Vitruvius'  manuscript  could  not  fail  to  end 
in  total  confusion.     What  actually  took  place  under  the 

2C 


386  WESTERN  EUROPE,  1420  TO   1520  A.D.  [Chap.  VII 

direction  of  Giuliano  and  Antonio  da  San  Gallo  and  their 
contemporaries  was  merely  this :  they  took  the  work  of 
the  architects  of  the  early  Renaissance  who  had  used  col- 
umns and  pilasters  freely,  —  that  is  to  say,  the  work  of 
such  men  as  Michelozzo,  Alberti,  and  their  still  living  but 
very  aged  successors,  Bramante  and  Fra  Giocondo,  —  and 
began  to  make  it  more  classical  by  applying  to  it  the 
examples  found  in  the  ruined  buildings  throughout  Italy. 
Thus  the  Forum  of  Nerva  gave  them  the  entablature 
breaking  out  into  a  projection  or  ressaut  at  each  column 
(see  Fig.  45) ;  the  topmost  story  of  the  Colosseum  gave 
them  an  order  of  pilasters  of  very  great  length,  tend- 
ing to  persuade  them  that  such  a  row  of  upright  mem- 
bers, equally  spaced,  might  be  continued  indefinitely; 
the  lower  stories  of  the  same  amphitheatre  and  parts  of 
many  other  edifices  gave  them  the  Roman  order  as  shown 
in  Fig.  44;  and  capitals  and  other  details  which  were 
found  underground  were  in  better  preservation  than  those 
in  place  in  ancient  buildings  in  the  city,  and  were  not  to 
be  disregarded  even  in  their  minutest  parts.  In  fact,  the 
architects  of  the  early  years  of  the  sixteenth  century  de- 
clared that  there  should  be  no  more  of  that  independent 
and  dashing  design  in  which  the  Venetians  and  the  Milan- 
ese had  been  so  strong,  nor  of  the  more  sedate  but  still 
fresh  and  novel  work  of  the  Florentines  and  Romans, 
The  question  now  was  how  to  use  the  ancient  Roman 
details,  unaltered  as  far  as  possible,  and  to  decide  just  how 
far  they  might  be  modified  where  change  was  inevitable. 
The  employment  of  Raphael  upon  S.  Peter's,  and  the 
application  of  his  alert  and  ready  mind  to  architectural 


Sec.  V] 


ITALY 


387 


design,  marks  this  change,  in  a  sense.  Raphael  was  eager 
in  directing  and  suggesting  excavations  in  Rome,  and,  as 
we  have  seen,  applied  himself  to  theoretical  study.  The 
fact  that  he  did  so  in  so  purely  classical  a  spirit  is  evi- 
dence of  the  state  of  feeling  at  the  time.  His  few  ad- 
mitted genuine  architectural  works  show  the  condition  of 
this  feeling  from  15 15  to  1520,  and  illustrate  the  transition 


I  Tijg.n  ti  ^lu  n  u  ii.il  TLn;Ti  ti  n  !i'  it  i-gi 


ii^j.ii^j.iLii.iLJi'ji  ii  u  J.J  n-ii.y 


Tn~ 


Fig.  201.     Rome:  Stoppani-Vidoni  Palace.     1515  to  1520  a.d. 


from  the  rinascimento  to  the  classicismo.  Figure  201 
gives  a  part  of  the  front  of  the  Palace  Stoppani-Vidoni  in 
Rome  between  the  Pantheon  and  the  river.  The  whole 
front  consists  of  seventeen  bays.  It  is  hard  for  us,  at  the 
close  of  the  nineteenth  century,  to  trace  the  classical 
Roman  sources  of  some  of  these  details.  Thus  the  rus- 
tication of  the  basement  and  the  balusters  which  support 
the  window-sills,  perhaps  also  the  use  of  the  pediment  over 


388  WESTERN   EUROPE,    1420  TO    1520   A.D.  [Chap.  VII 

the  small  windows  in  the  basement,  may  easily  have  come 
from  buildings  since  defaced  or  destroyed ;  for  the  ruin  of 
the  antique  remains  between  1500  and  1750  was  continual 
and  most  disastrous.  We  may  feel  tolerably  certain  that 
the  coupled  columns  and  coupled  pilasters  were  an  inven- 
tion of  the  sixteenth  century.  Probably  no  ancient  Roman 
structure  furnished  an  example  of  an  exterior  of  house 
or  palace,  and  the  sixteenth-century  men  were  puzzled 
by  the  question  how  far  their  walls  and  piers  might 
remain  bare  and  unbroken  surfaces.  Evidently  the 
designer  of  the  Stoppani-Vidoni  Palace  was  afraid  of 
a  blank-wall  surface.  He  filled  the  narrow  piers  of  his 
principal  story,  which  had  a  width  between  the  projecting 
architraves  of  the  windows  of  only  six  feet,  eight  inches, 
with  two  pilasters  on  a  common  pedestal,  giving  an  effect 
of  crowding  which  was  certainly  not  classical  Roman. 
The  mouldings  and  their  combination  and  the  arrange- 
ment of  the  order  are,  however,  most  carefully  studied 
from  the  antique.  This  example,  then,  is  offered  as  an 
instance  of  the  latest  Renaissance  passing  into  the  neo- 
Roman  which  was  to  succeed  it. 


CHAPTER   VIII 

THE  ARCHITECTURE  OF  WESTERN  EUROPE,  1520  TO  1665 
A.D.  The  Northern  Nations  follow  in  a  Hesitating  Way  the 
Examples  furnished  by  Italy  during  the  Previous  Period  (1420- 
1520),  but  each  People  Works  out  its  own  Renaissance,  and  the 
Pure  and  Early  Italian  Renaissance  of  1420-75  has  no  Imita- 
tors. Spain  has  her  own  Peculiar  and  more  nearly  Italian  Re- 
naissance. Italy  goes  on  to  the  more  Formal  Classic  Style,  but 
Strong  Renaissance  Feeling  still  exists  in  the  Northern  Provinces. 

PREFATORY    NOTE 

The  classical  Renaissance  in  architecture  is  of  course 
wholly  Italian  in  its  origin,  as  has  been  shown  in  Chapter 
VII.  It  is  to  be  seen,  completely  accepted,  in  Italy  eighty 
years  before  any  decided  effect  from  it  is  visible  in  France, 
the  Netherlands,  England,  or  Germany, —  influencing  Spain 
meanwhile,  but  only  slightly.  After  15 10  all  the  above- 
named  lands  show  traces  of  that  Italian  influence,  but 
it  works  slowly,  and  each  people  allows  it  only  so  much 
weight  as  this,  —  that  they  abandon  Gothic  methods, 
though  slowly  and  reluctantly;  and  as  they  cast  about 
for  new  ways  of  work,  admit  with  great  reserve  the  classic 
style  as  used  in  Italy.  This  condition  lasts  for  more  than 
a  century;    and  when  we   remember  how  rapidly  Gothic 

389 


390  WESTERN   EUROPE,  1520  TO    1665   A.D.  [Chap.  VIII 

methods  of  building  were  taken  up,  as  described  in  Chap- 
ter v.,  this  slow  growth  of  the  classical  Renaissance  in 
architecture  is  surprising.  The  reason  for  it  is,  that 
w^hereas  in  the  twelfth  century  the  Romanesque  style  was 
in  use  everywhere,  and  Gothic  was  but  a  slight  modifica- 
tion of  it,  commending  itself  at  once,  in  the  sixteenth 
century  the  Gothic  style  was  in  use  everywhere  except  in 
Italy,  and  the  revived  classic  methods  were  a  complete 
denial  and  reversal  of  it.  Therefore,  though  Italian  influ- 
ence was  always  present  in  the  building  of  northern  and 
western  Europe  from  about  1510,  it  was  not  predomi- 
nant until  much  later,  and  was  never  accepted  without 
question  until  the  reign  of  Louis  XIV.  The  preference 
of  that  monarch  and  his  ministers  was  for  the  stately 
quasi-Roman  colonnades,  which  seemed  to  them  to  express 
the  spirit  of  a  powerful  modern,  centralized  state,  modelled 
on  what  they  thought  a  Roman  model.  The  colonnade 
of  the  Louvre  and  the  palaces  of  Marly  and  Versailles 
did  what  direct  Italian  influence  had  never  been  able 
to  do,  and  brought  all  northern  Europe  into  uniform 
practice  in  these  matters,  so  that  after  1665  national 
styles  tend  to  disappear,  and  the  one  grand  would-be 
classic  style  to  prevail  alike  from  Naples  to  Stockholm. 
This  chapter  is  devoted  to  the  era  of  transitional  styles, 
in  which  mediaeval  independence  and  Italian  influence  are 
striving  for  the  mastery.  Chapter  IX.  will  describe  the 
era  of  uniformity. 


Sec.  I]  FRANCE  39 1 


The  march  of  Charles  VIII.  through  Italy  in  the  years 
1486-88  is  generally  set  down  as  the  event  which  intro- 
duced the  French  nobles  to  the  buildings  of  the  Renais- 
sance in  Italy.  This  common  opinion  is  sufficiently 
accurate  to  be  left  undisturbed.  It  was  not  only  the 
imitation  of  the  classic  architecture  which  pleased,  in 
Italy,  the  northern  princes,  —  it  was  also  the  sight  of 
extensive  and  elaborately  planned  villas  and  princely  resi- 
dences in  city  and  country,  in  which  comfort  and  luxury 
had  been  considered  before  the  needs  of  fortification.  It 
is  in  accordance  with  this  view  that  the  first  important 
step  taken  in  France  in  the  way  of  non-Gothic  architect- 
ure was  in  the  adjustment  of  some  of  the  old  strong 
castles  to  the  requirements  of  petty  local  courts  and  the 
almost  complete  abandonment  of  their  defensible  char- 
acter. In  making  these  changes,  suggestions  of  the  new 
Italian  art  occur ;  here  a  doorway  ornamented  with  pilas- 
ters, and  a  fantastic  fronton  which  might  be  called  a 
pediment,  there  a  series  of  windows,  newly  cut  through 
the  heavy  old  walls,  and  adorned  with  pilasters  and  entab- 
lature which  present  a  far-away  resemblance  to  Roman 
forms.  Such  chateaux  are  to  be  seen  in  that  well-known 
country  on  the  Loire,  concerning  which  and  its  pictur- 
esque castles  and  manor-houses  so  much  has  been  written. 
Chaumont  on  the  Loire  between  Tours  and  Blois,  Azay-le- 
Rideau  near  Tours  on  the  southwest,  Chateaudun  in  La 
Beauce  half-way  between  Blois  and  Chartres,  and,  further 


392  WESTERN  EUROPE,  1520  TO   1665   A.D.  [Chap.  VIII 

west,  Josselin  in  Brittany,  north  of  Vannes,  are  all  groups 
of  buildings  of  this  mixed  character.  In  these,  with  no 
royal  or  semi-royal  profusion,  as  at  Chambord  and  at 
Ecouen,  the  lord  of  the  manor  has  rearranged  his  ancient 
manor-house  with  more  or  less  rebuilding  according  to 
the  classical  fancies  of  the  court.  With  these  may  be 
compared  the  chateau  of  Meillant  near  Bourges,  which, 
although  refitted  at  the  beginning  of  the  sixteenth  cen- 
tury, was  left  in  the  florid  Gothic  style.  Some  buildings 
newly  built  at  the  same  epoch  contain  a  very  similar 
mingling  of  classical  forms  in  a  hesitating  and  uncertain 
fashion,  with  a  general  plan  and  a  conception  of  the 
building  as  a  whole  as  purely  mediaeval  as  is  the  greater 
part  of  its  ornamentation.  The  Hotel  de  Ville  of  Noyon 
in  northeastern  France  was  built  between  1485  and  the 
close  of  the  century.  All  its  windows,  without  exception, 
are  of  late  florid  Gothic ;  the  doorways  on  the  court  are 
of  the  same  style,  and  of  the  same  style  are  the  exquisite 
niches  for  statues  between  the  windows  of  the  upper  story 
on  the  street  front,  and  the  band  of  delicate  sculpture 
which  separates  the  stories.  Into  this  Gothic  front  facing 
on  the  quiet  square  is  intruded  a  door-piece  consisting 
of  two  pilasters  and  an  entablature  enclosing  a  doorway 
with  a  three-centred  arch  and  minor  pilasters,  and  the 
fa9ade  is  completed  by  a  sort  of  attic  with  bull's-eye  win- 
dows, and  finishing  in  a  classical  cornice,  above  which 
arise  dormer  windows,  pinnacles,  and  a  round  pediment  of 
completely  Renaissance  character.  It  may  well  be  that 
these  entirely  classical  features  were  added  after  the  close 
of  the  century ;  but  the  contrast  between  the  late  Gothic 


Sec.  I]  FRANCE  393 

and  the  early  Renaissance  forms  is  frequently  shown  us 
in  that  way,  —  a  building  begun  under  the  florid  Gothic 
regime  and  finished  by  hesitating  adoption,  a  few  years 
later,  of  details  brought  from  Italy.  In  other  cases 
buildings  were  begun  and  completed  in  the  same  style 
throughout.  Among  these,  the  florid  Gothic  is  for  a 
time  contemporaneous  with  a  completely  realized  non- 
Gothic  style.  Thus  the  church  of  Brou,  a  suburb  of 
Bourg-en-Bresse  near  Macon  in  southern  Burgundy,  is 
wholly  flamboyant  Gothic,  without  the  slightest  invasion  of 
forms  brought  from  Italy.  Although  begun  about  15  lo, 
it  was  not  completed  until  1536.  The.  Palais  de  Justice 
and  the  church  of  S.  Maclou,  both  in  Rouen  (pp.  330  and 
342),  were  not  finished  until  1535;  and  the  south  portal 
of  Beauvais  Cathedral  is  of  even  later  date,  perhaps  as 
late  as  1545.  All  the  above-named  buildings  are  florid 
Gothic  in  style. 

If  the  buildings  undertaken  by  the  Cardinal  George 
of  Amboise  had  been  completed  and  had  been  preserved 
to  us,  we  should  have  had  one  or  two  specimens  of  the 
classical  Renaissance  in  French  architecture  of  a  much 
earlier  date  than  any  that  remain.  Jacques  Androuet  du 
Cerceau  has  preserved  in  one  of  his  books  views  of  that 
remarkable  chateau  of  Gaillon  near  Rouen  in  Normandy, 
which,  although  begun  under  Louis  XI.,  was  continued 
in  the  Italian  taste  between  1502  and  15 10,  and  perhaps 
from  the  designs  of  an  Italian  architect.  This  building, 
in  the  parts  erected  for  George  of  Amboise,  was  clearly 
such  a  palace  as  a  thoroughly  enlightened  and  very 
wealthy  French   noble  would  have  dreamed   of    building 


394  WESTERN  EUROPE,    1520  TO   1665   A.D.  [Chap.  VIII 

at  this  time:  here  is  an  example  of  what  the  compan- 
ions of  Charles  VIII.  must  have  longed  for.  But  of  ex- 
isting works  of  this  early  period  and  purely  Renaissance 
in  character  we  have  only,  besides  the  fragments  of  the 
chateau  of  Gaillon,  both  on  the  spot  and  in  the  court  of 
the  Ecole  des  Beaux  Arts  in  Paris,  such  small  structures 
as  the  tomb  in  the  cathedral  of  Nantes.  This  splendid 
altar-tomb  is  dedicated  to  the  last  independent  duke  of 
Brittany  and  his  wife.  The  sides  are  divided  into  ar- 
cades with  splayed  archivolts  and  jambs;  and  these  and 
the  pilasters  between  the  arches  are  nearly  of  Italian 
form,  and  are  filled,  in  the  Italian  taste,  with  delicate 
arabesques.  This  tomb,  the  work  of  Michel  Colomb 
and  Jean  Perreal,  was  certainly  executed  before  1508. 
Still  more  surprising  is  the  tomb  erected  about  1506  to 
the  children  of  Charles  VIII.,  and  which  stands  in  the 
church  of  S.  Gatien  of  Tours.  This  is  a  sculptor's  rather 
than  an  architect's  design,  but  it  is  of  the  revived  classic 
style  in  every  part,  and  reminds  the  student  that  the 
Renaissance  was  eighty  years  old  in  Italy,  though  hardly 
born  in  France.  Of  the  same  date  is  the  mutilated  tomb 
in  the  cathedral  of  Dol  on  the  Breton  coast,  near  Saint 
Malo.  This  is  dedicated  to  the  Bishop  Thomas  James,  and 
was  erected  in  1507 ;  it  is  in  style  completely  Italian  of  the 
Renaissance.  To  find  parts  of  existing  buildings  as  early 
as  these  monuments  and,  like  them,  in  the  classic  man- 
ner, we  have  to  seek  for  details  of  those  chateaux  of  the 
Transition  of  which  mention  was  made  in  Chapter 
VII.  If  the  splendid  chateau  of  Azay-le-Rideau  can  be 
proved  to  be   of  as  early  a  date  as    15 10,  it   is  the   first 


Sec.  I]  FRANCE  395 

of  these  great  mansions  to  show  the  imprint  of  the 
Italian  Renaissance  in  its  details.  The  contemporary 
structure  at  Blois,  forming  that  wing  of  the  castle  in 
which  the  entrance  is  situated,  and  called  the  wing  of 
L'ouis  XII.,  is  still  transitional  in  character,  and  almost 
exclusively  mediaeval  in  its  details,  although  built  under 
the  direct  influence  of  the  court.  In  the  same  city  the 
dwelling-house  called  the  Hotel  d'Alluye  is  nearly  con- 
temporary with  Azay-le-Rideau,  at  least  in  the  year  of 
its  commencement.  The  fronts  on  the  court  afford  as 
good  an  example  as  can  be  given  of  the  earliest  French 
building  in  attempted  imitation  of  the  Italian  manner. 
There  can  be  no  doubt  that  this  front  was  completed  be- 
tween 1 5 10  and  1 5 16,  and  yet  there  is  absolutely  no  direct 
reference  to  mediaeval  forms  in  the  details.  The  general 
character  of  the  arcades,  which  form  the  chief  decorative 
feature,  may  be  judged  by  the  gallery  of  Bussy  (Fig.  204). 
This,  however,  has  the  simple  character  of  domestic  build- 
ing; for  more  elaborate  architecture  wholly  non-Gothic  in 
character,  one  must  select  such  a  piece  of  purely  decora- 
tive work  as  the  tomb  of  Louis  XII.  and  his  queen  at 
Saint  Denis.  This  indeed  is  a  little  later,  not  having  been 
begun  till  15 16.  The  magnificent  tomb  in  the  cathedral 
of  Rouen  of  the  two  cardinals  George  I.  and  George  II., 
of  Amboise,  is  indeed  a  complete  work  of  the  classical 
Renaissance,  but  it  seems  clear  that  it  was  not  begun 
till   1520,  nor  finished  till   1525. 

We  are  perhaps  right,  then,  in  assuming  the  date  1520 
for  the  complete  victory  of  the  Renaissance  in  France, 
although,  as  we  have  seen,  some  Gothic  buildings  were  go- 


396  WESTERN   EUROPE,    1520  TO    1665   A.D.  [Chap.  VIII 

ing  on  during  another  decade.  It  is  certainly  interesting 
to  note  that  this  is  as  nearly  as  possible  a  century  later 
than  the  building  of  S.  Lorenzo  and  the  completion  of  the 
chapel  of  the  Pazzi  in  Florence  (see  pp.  369,  370).  It  is 
a  fact  of  enormous  importance  in  the  history  of  archi- 
tecture that  the  Gothic  art  flourished  in  perfect  strength 
and  without  the  invasion  of  foreign  elements  for  a  cen- 
tury after  Italy  had  taken  up  a  revived  classic  style.  It 
is  also  interesting  to  observe  that  the  classical  Renais- 
sance was  immediately  successful  in  Italy,  whereas  in 
France  it  required  forty  years  to  make  a  beginning. 

In  1526,  Franpis  I.  having  been  more  than  ten  years 
on  the  throne,  there  was  begun  the  great  country  Palace 
of  Chambord,  on  the  site  of  a  hunting-lodge  which  the 
king  had  purchased.  In  this  immense  structure  every 
detail  is  non-Gothic,  and  is  in  the  main  studied  from 
Italian  forms  a  half-century  earlier  in  date  (see  Fig. 
202).  The  plan  and  the  general  masses  of  the  building 
are  northern ;  that  is  to  say,  they  are  not  Italian  at  all, 
and  are  the  evident  result  of  an  attempt  to  modify  the 
French  strong  castle  of  the  fifteenth  century  so  as  to 
make  of  it  an  agreeable  residence.  This  is  true  of  the 
plans  of  the  chateaux  cited  above  (p.  391)  and  of  many 
others ;  but  in  Chambord  we  know  that  the  chateau  was 
built  from  one  design  and  at  one  time,  under  the  direc- 
tion of  a  French  master-builder,  and  it  is  clear  that  the 
problem  was  studied  not  without  much  aid  from  experi- 
ence gained  in  previous  buildings.  There  is  only  one 
important  piece  of  architecture  built  in  the  same  style 
and  either  contemporary  with  or  a  few  years  earlier  than 


Sec.  I] 


FRANCE 


397 


Chambord ;  namely,  the  building  of  Francis  I.,  in  the 
chateau  of  Blois/  The  fa9ade  which  fronts  the  court 
on  the  northwest  side,  with  its  open  stairway  tower,  is 
very  familiar  to  all  lovers  of  picturesque  architecture  (see 


Fig.  202.     Chateau  de  Chambord,  France :  Central  mass.     1525  to  1540  A.D. 

Fig.  203).  The  outside  front  of  the  same  building,  tower- 
ing high  above  the  town,  is  less  known.  This  long  front 
stretches  about  two  hundred   and   twenty-five  feet  along 

^  The  writer  of  the  notice  in  the  Archives  de  la  Coiimtission  des  Monuments 
Historiqnes  notices  that  the  emblems  of  Francis'  queen,  Claude  of  France,  are 
absent  from  Chambord  but  common  at  Blois,  and  infers  that  the  latter  building 
was  begun  before  her  death  in  1524. 


Fig.  203.    Blois,  France:  Chateau.    Part  of  the  building  of  Francis  I.     About  1525  A.D. 


Sec.  I] 


FRANCE 


399 


one  side  of  the  square,  from  which  rise  the  broken  rocks 
which  carry  the  chateau. 

The  two  wings  of  the.  chateau  of  Bussy  near  the  village 
of  Bussy-le-Grand,  in  Burgundy,  are  of  a  simple  and  re- 


FlG.  204.     Bussy-le-Grand,  France :  Chateau  of  Bussy-Rabutin.     Arcade  on  the  court. 

About  1540  A.D. 

fined  type  of  the  architecture  of  Francis  I.  and  show  quite 
accurately  the  fashion  in  which  French  architects  at  this 
early  date  were  dealing  with  their  Italian  models.  Figure 
204  gives  one  bay  of  this  charming  construction.  Another 
and  a  much  less  pretentious  architectural  composition  is 


400 


WESTERN   EUROPE,   1520  TO    1665   A.D 


[Chap.  VIII 


Fig.  205.     Varengeville,  France  :  Part  of  the  manor  of  Jean  Ango.     About  1545. 

offered  us  in  the  buildings  at  Warengeville,  or  Varenge- 
ville, near  Dieppe  on  the  Normandy  coast.  In  this,  which 
is  commonly  known  as  the  Manoir  d'Ango,  from  its  builder, 


Sec.  I]  FRANCE  4OI 

a  famous  merchant  of  the  time  of  Francis  I.,  there  is  no 
pretence  of  state) iness  or  of  that  grandeur  that  comes  of 
size  and  regularity.  The  buildings  of  a  large  farm  are 
arranged  around  a  courtyard,  from  which  they  are  entered, 
and  the  enclosure  itself  is  approached  by  a  single  gateway. 
This  simple  device  for  keeping  out  plunderers  of  hen- 
roosts, who  on  occasion  might  be  capable  of  bolder  enter- 
prises, was  in  favour  down  to  the  revolution.  The  decora- 
tive details  of  Ango's  buildings  (see  Fig.  205)  are,  to  a 
large  extent,  obtained  by  the  use  of  coloured  materials, 
brick  and  light-coloured  stone  alternating  in  much  the 
same  way  in  which  stone  of  two  colours  was  used  in  the 
twelfth  century  (see  p.  153). 

It  should  be  kept  in  mind  that  two  tendencies  are  trace- 
able, acting  side  by  side  and  contemporaneously.  In  some 
buildings  the  form  is  somewhat  Italian,  while  the  details 
retain  much  florid  Gothic  feeling.  In  others,  the  form  is 
almost  wholly  mediaeval,  while  the  details  are  non-Gothic. 
The  best  instance  of  the  latter  tendency  is  the  church  of 
S.  Eustache  in  Paris.  This  church  is  unique  in  the  com- 
pleteness of  its  design  as  of  a  fifteenth-century  florid 
Gothic  church,  all  of  whose  details  have  been  changed 
into  something  which  is  meant  to  be  classical  in  the  spirit 
of  the  Lombard  Renaissance  of  1475.  The  interior  is 
beautiful  in  proportion  and  organization  of  its  parts,  and 
the  detail  is  everywhere  interesting.  This  church  is  one 
more  instance  of  a  fine  architectural  effect  destined  to 
have  no  farther  result. 

The  beautiful  wooden-framed  houses  of  the  sixteenth 
century  deserve  especial  notice  here,  because  in  them  more 


402 


WESTERN   EUROPE,   1520  TO    1665   A.D. 


[Chap.  VIII 


than  in  the  great  chateaux  is  seen  a  mingling  of  Gothic  and 
semi-classic  feeling,  the  two  styles  uniting  to   form    one. 

The  house  at  Beauvais 
in  rue  S.  Thomas,  and 
another  in  rue  S.  Jean, 
are  remarkable  in  this 
respect,  and  the  house- 
front  at  Rouen  on  the 
square  S.  Andre  (see 
Fig.  206)  also  exempli- 
fies this  action  of  the 
classic,  or  at  least  the 
non-Gothic,  spirit  upon 
builders  who  had  them- 
selves worked  in  the 
Gothic  style  and  were 
still  of  a  mind  to  retain 
all  its  freedom  of  design 
and  of  construction. 

In  complete  contrast 
with  these  buildings  is 
the  chateau  of  Ecouen. 
This  palace  consists  of 
three  buildings  enclosing 
on  three  sides  a  square 
court  whose  fourth  side 
was  closed  originally  by 
a  rich  gallery  with  the 
gateway,  now  destroyed. 
It  was  built  in  the  years  following  1540  by  the  constable 


Fig.  206.     Rouen,  France :  House, 
sixteenth  century. 


Middle  of 


Fig.  207.     Ecouen,  France  :  Chateau.     Begun  about  1545. 


404  WESTERN  EUROPE,  1520  TO   1665   A.D.  [Chap.  VIII 

Anne  de  Montmorenci  and  under  the  direction  of  Jean 
Bullant.  The  three  fronts  on  the  court  are  of  three 
different  designs,  and  each  of  these  is  in  the  main  as 
purely  a  neo-classic  design  as  an  Italian  building  of  the 
time.  Two  features  only  remind  us  that  this  is  a  building 
of  the  French  Renaissance.  One  of  these  is  the  high  roof 
with  its  large  dormer  windows  (see  Fig.  207,  which  gives 
a  part  of  one  of  the  fronts  on  the  court).  The  other  is  the 
marking  of  the  position  of  the  chapel  in  one  pavilion  by 
its  windows  with  pointed  heads.  It  is  evident  that  the 
windows  are  pointed  that  they  may  correspond  with  the 
curves  of  the  vaulting  ribs,  which  are  of  unusual  size  and 
projection,  this  tradition  of  the  pure  Gothic  style  having 
still  so  much  weight  whenever  a  vaulted  roof  was  under- 
taken. The  beautiful  apsidal  chapels  of  the  church  of 
Nogent-sur-Seine,  near  Troyes  in  Champagne,  although 
later  in  date,  form  a  curious  contrast  to  the  gravity  of 
Ecouen.  In  the  exterior  of  these  chapels,  there  are 
strong  evidences  of  lingering  medieval  feeling,  and  the 
result  is  curiously  like  the  English  Elizabethan  style  (see 
Fig.  208).  The  front  of  S.  Etienne  du  Mont  in  Paris, 
begun  about  1616,  is  an  instance  of  a  more  advanced 
classical  style  compelled  to  adapt  itself  to  the  mediaeval 
structure  behind  it  (see  Fig.  209).  The  late  Gothic  in- 
terior of  this  church  is  partly  shown  in  Fig.  210,  which 
gives  the  elaborate  jube  or  choir-screen,  begun  in  1600. 
The  singular  stone  roof  of  the  choir  of  the  little  church 
at  Tillieres  (Eure)  in  Normandy,  near  Dreux,  is  a  piece 
of  bold  designing.  It  consists  of  stone  slabs  laid  hori- 
zontally upon  stone  ribs  supported  by  arches  (see  Fig.  211). 


[ml     I     I     I     1 


if 
_j 


Fig.  208.     Nogent-sur-Seine,  France :  Church.     Chapels  of  south  aisle.     Second  half 

of  sixteenth  century. 


406 


WESTERN   EUROPE,   1520  TO    1665    A.D. 


[Chap.  VIII 


Figure  212  is  an  approximate  plan  in  which  each  diagonal 
line  represents  one  horizontal  rib  together  with  the  arch 
which  supports  it.  Viollet-le-Duc  names  other  roofs  built 
in  this  way,  but  the  system  was  not  destined  to  survive. 
Toward  the  close  of   the    reign   of    Francis    I.,  French 

architects  became  as 
widely  known  as  the 
Italians  of  a  century 
earlier  or  as  those 
Italians  whom  the 
king  had  brought 
from  Italy.  These 
last  had  been  in 
control  at  Fontaine- 
bleau.  The  first  of 
them  was  Sebasti- 
ano  Serlio,  the  well- 
known  writer  on 
architecture,  who 
died  at  Fontaine- 
bleau  in  1541.  The 
painter  Rosso  Rossi, 
known  in  France  as 
Le  Roux  or  Maitre 
Roux,  and  Francesco  Primaticcio  of  Bologna  continued 
the  work  at  Fontainebleau,  though  more  in  the  way 
of  interior  decoration  than  of  architecture  in  the  usual 
sense.  The  Frenchmen  who  succeeded  them,  and  who 
surpassed  them  in  achievement  and  renown,  are  espe- 
cially   the   four   architects,    Jean    Bullant,    Pierre    Lescot, 


Fig.  209.  Paris :  Church  of  S.  Etienne  du  Mont. 
West  front.  Close  of  sixteenth  century.  Portico. 
161O  A.D. 


Sec.  I]  FRANCE  407 

Philibert  de  I'Orme,  and  Jacques  Androuet  du  Cer- 
ceau,  and  the  sculptor  Jean  Goujon.  All  five  were 
born  about  the  time  of   the  accession  of  Francis  I.,  and 


Fig.  210.     Paris:  Church  of  S.  Etienne  du  Mont.     Rood  screen.     Begun  1600  A. D. 

although  some  of  their  work  is  included  in  the  reign  of 
that  prince,  yet  all  are  to  be  considered  rather  as  the 
artists  of  the  brief  reigns  which  followed.     When   Fran- 


Fig.  211.     Tillieres,  France:  Church.     Vaulting  of  choir.     Second  half  of  sixteenth 

century. 


Sec.  I] 


FRANCE 


409 


cis  I.  died,  in  1547,  the  chateau  of  Ecouen  was  complete, 
the  new  Louvre  had  been  planned  by  Pierre  Lescot  and 
the  buildings  commenced,  though  the  square  court  had 
not  yet  been  increased  to  its  present  size;  at  Fontaine- 
bleau  the  buildings  on  the  south  side  had  been  finished, 
and  the  so-called  gallery  of  Francis  I.  was  well  advanced, 
and  even  the  grave  and  severe  court  fronts  of  the  Hotel 
de  Carnavalet  at  Paris  had  been  completed  from  the 
designs  of  Pierre  Lescot.  The  reign  of  Henry  II.  was 
marked  by  the  erection  of  the  beautiful  belfries  of  the 
cathedral  of  Tours, 
though  from  designs 
of  an  earlier  date, 
the  chateau  of  Anet 
built  for  Diane  de 
Poitiers,  and  the 
chateau  of  Villers- 
Cotterets.  The  tra- 
dition is  that  it  was 
in  the  chapel  of  this  last-named  structure  that  Phili- 
bert  de  I'Orme  first  introduced  those  columns  which 
seem  to  have  bands  around  them,  being  built  of  drums 
of  alternately  larger  and  smaller  size,  —  a  detail  which 
he  was  proud  of  and  described  in  his  books  as  "I'ordre 
fran9aise,"  and  which  was  used  freely  afterward  in  the 
water-side  gallery  of  the  Louvre. 

Soon  after  the  death  of  her  husband,  Catherine  dei 
Medici  planned  the  construction  of  a  palace  outside  the 
walls  of  Paris  at  a  place  called  the  Tuileries,  from  the 
tile   furnaces   thereabout.      Philibert  de  I'Orme   designed 


Fig.  212. 


Tillieres,  France :  Church.     Approximate 
plan  of  choir.     See  Fig.  211. 


410  WESTERN  EUROPE,  1520  TO   1665  A.D.  [Chap.  VIII 

a  very  large  structure  enclosing  several  courts  and  cover- 
ing much  of  what  is  now  the  Place  du  Carrousel,  where 
the  triumphal  arch  stands;  but  only  the  western  line  of 
buildings  was  ever  begun.  Two  years  later,  in  1566,  Pierre 
Chambiges  began  to  build  that  short  stretch  of  building 
leading  from  the  southwestern  corner  of  the  old  Louvre 
southward  toward  the  river,  and  which  now  has  the 
Gallery  of  Apollo  in  its  upper  story.  Only  the  ground 
story  of  this  was  built  in  the  sixteenth  century.  The 
work  on  the  old  Louvre  went  on,  and  the  square  court 
was  increased  to  four  times  its  original  size,  so  that  the 
two  fronts  of  Pierre  Lescot  became  only  halves  of  the 
western  and  southern  fa9ades  respectively.  These  fronts 
of  Pierre  Lescot  are  held,  rightly  enough,  to  be  the  last 
works  of  the  Renaissance  proper  in  France. 

With  the  reign  of  Henry  IV.  and  the  cessation  of  the 
religious  wars  a  new  style  appears,  a  style  of  gravity  and 
solidity  and  of  a  business-like  economy  of  materials  and 
workmanship,  a  style  singularly  devoid  of  the  fantastic 
charm  of  Chambord  and  Blois;  and  also  without  that 
exquisite  grace  in  the  employment  of  the  pseudo-classical 
details  borrowed  directly  from  Italian  art  of  the  second 
period,  1 500  and  later,  which  is  to  be  found  at  the  Louvre 
and  at  Ecouen.  Typical  of  the  style  of  Henry  IV.  are 
the  Place  des  Vosges,  originally  called  Place  Royale,  in 
the  far  east  of  Paris,  not  far  from  the  Bastille,  and  the 
Place  Dauphine  on  the  island  in  the  river,  and  opening 
immediately  upon  the  Pont  Neuf,  where  Henry's  eques- 
trian statue  is  placed.  Claude  du  Chatillon  is  the  archi- 
tect whom  we  credit  with  these  desio^ns.     Enousrh  remains 


o 
hinl 


/s        zo 
J L. 


!r 


Fig.  213.     Moulins,  France:  Former  college  of  the  Jesuits.     First  lialf  of  sixteenth 

century. 


412  WESTERN   EUROPE,  1520  TO    1665   A.D.  [Chap.  VIII 

of  the  original  buildings,  even  of  the  latter  composition,  to 
enable  the  whole  to  be  restored  in  the  mind,  or  (as  has 
been  done  with  success)  on  paper,  as  four  long  rows  of 
similar  house-fronts  of  brick  and  stone,  well  worked  into 
simple  and  dignified  architecture.  Of  the  Place  des 
Vosges  much  more  remains  intact ;  and  the  pavilion 
where  the  rue  Birague  enters  the  square  is  an  admirable 
specimen  of  the  earliest  seventeenth-century  town  archi- 
tecture. A  good  example  of  this  class  of  buildings  is  the 
hospital  of  Moulins  (Allier),  once  a  Jesuit  college,  of 
which  large  building,  Fig.  213  shows  one  wing.  The 
Hotel  Montescot  at  Chartres  is  of  this  date,  about  16 10, 
and  of  the  same  gravity  and  simplicity  of  design.  A  far 
more  decorative  style  was  co-existent  with  what  is  de- 
scribed above ;  namely,  that  style  of  simple  disposition 
and  florid  ornamentation  embodied  in  the  Hotel  de  Vogue 
at  Dijon  and  the  Hotel  La  Valette^  opposite  the  island 
of  S.  Louis  in  Paris  and  fronting  on  the  Quai  S.  Paul. 
In  each  of  these  buildings  the  same  peculiarities  exist : 
the  almost  complete  rejection  of  colonnades  and  of  the 
systematic  use  of  classical  orders  in  any  form,  even  in 
the  way  of  flat  pilasters ;  the  opening  of  windows  in  the 
walls  simply  and  in  sufficient  number  for  convenience 
and  comfort;  and  finally  the  investing  of  this  simple 
exterior  with  abundant  sculpture  decoration.  It  marks 
the   still  existing  independence   of    routine   and   tradition 

1  The  recent  restoration  of  this  beautiful  dwelling-house  seems  to  have  in- 
volved a  very  complete  rebuilding,  and  it  is  difficult  to  be  sure  of  the  date  of  any 
part  of  the  exterior  work.  Moreover,  if  the  original  were  designed  by  Fran9ois 
Mansart,  it  is  later  than  the  H6tel  Vogue. 


Fig.  214.     Paris:  Palace  of  the  Luxembourg.     Separate  pavilion.     About  1620  A.D. 


414  WESTERN  EUROPE,   1520  TO   1665   A.D.  [Chap.  VIII 

in  France  that  the  Hotel  Vogue  and  the  paviHons  of  the 
Place  Royale  should  have  been  built  simultaneously. 

The  reign  of  Louis  XIII.  is  still  marked  by  the  erection 
of  important  private  and  civic  buildings.  The  palace  of 
the  Luxembourg  in  Paris,  built  for  the  queen-mother  Marie 
dei  Medici  by  Salomon  de  Brosse,  and  the  southernmost 
building  of  the  Palais  Royal,  that  which  surrounds  on 
three  sides  the  square  court  opening  on  the  Place  du 
Palais  Royal,  which  was  designed  by  Jacques  Lemercier 
for  the  Cardinal  Richelieu,  and  now  serves  for  the 
meetings  of  the  Conseil  d'Etat,  are  representative  of  the 
styles  of  this  reign.  The  one  embodies  the  severe  and 
grave  style  of  the  time  of  Henry  IV.,  modified  by  the  in- 
troduction of  orders  of  pilasters,  but  keeping  these  and 
all  Italianized  details  in  their  place  as  decoration  (see 
Fig.  214).  The  other  exemplifies  the  commencement  of 
that  more  self-conscious,  more  deliberately  formal  and 
stately  style  which  was  to  reach  its  culmination  under 
Louis  XIV. 

The  churches  of  this  reign  (of  Louis  XIII.)  are  more 
numerous  than  those  of  the  previous  century ;  for,  as  time 
went  on,  the  mediaeval  supply,  abundant  as  it  was,  began 
to  be  found  insufficient.  Of  them  all,  the  church  of  the 
Sorbonne,  begun  in  1635  by  Jacques  Lemercier,  is  certainly 
the  most  important.  Its  dome  is  the  earliest  example  in 
France  of  a  stone  dome  carrying  a  stone  lantern  without 
any  concealed  devices  for  taking  the  weight ;  and  its  front 
in  two  orders  is  one  of  the  best  instances  existing  of  the 
modern  Roman  system  of  design  applied  to  the  front  of  a 
building  with  clear-story  and  aisles.     The  west  front  of 


Sec.  I]  .  FRANCE  415 

S.  Gervais  had  been  built  earlier  than  this,  but  was  merely 
a  front  planted  on  to  a  church  of  earlier  date.  The  church 
of  the  Val-de-Grace,  in  Paris,  on  the  south  side  of  the 
Seine,  was  built  partly  by  Fran9ois  Mansart  and  partly  by 
Jacques  Lemercier;  but  the  beautiful  dome  was  not  built 
until  the  time  of  Louis  XIV.,  and  is  by  another  architect. 
The  church  of  S.  Roch,  in  Paris,  is  wholly  of  the  reign  of 
Louis  XIV.,  and  was  designed  by  Lemercier,  who  had  nearly 
finished  the  interior  before  his  death  in  1654.  The  curious 
system  of  vaulting  alluded  to  in  Chapter  IV.  and  shown 
in  Fig.  85  is  well  exemplified  by  the  fine  and  impressive 
interior  of  S.  Roch  (see  Fig.  215).  At  Fontainebleau 
Lemercier  built,  about  1634,  the  famous  double  perron  in 
the  oval  court.  At  the  Louvre  the  same  architect  was 
employed  upon  those  two  pavilions  in  the  square  court 
which  made  positive  and  certain  the  extension  of  the  court 
to  its  present  great  size,  410  feet  square  in  the  interior. 
These  pavilions  are  those  of  the  middle  of  the  south  front 
and  the  middle  of  the  west  front.  The  original  feudal 
castle  had  occupied  a  space  not  exceeding  two  hundred 
and  fifty  feet  square,  external  measurement,  and  the  new 
Louvre,  as  imagined  by  Francis  I.  and  planned  by  Pierre 
Lescot,  would  have  had  an  inner  court  not  much  exceeding 
one  hundred  and  fifty  feet  each  way.  By  adding  a  pavil- 
ion to  the  north  of  Lescot's  west  wing  and  one  to  the  east 
of  his  south  wing,  and  by  making  these  the  centres  of  the 
future  west  and  south  fa9ades  on  the  court,  a  court  of  four 
hundred  feet  each  way  was  assured.  These  dimensions 
have  been  given  because  they  mark  the  beginning  of  the 
modern  demand  for  great  size  as  a  chief  element  in  archi- 


4i6 


WESTERN   EUROPE,  1520  TO    1665   A.D. 


[Chap.  VIII 


tectural  effect.  A  mediaeval  cathedral  was  large,  because  a 
great  deal  of  room  was  wanted  on  the  floor,  and  the  other 
dimensions  had  to  conform  to  this,  —  following  the  inex- 


FlG.  215.     Paris:  Church  of  S.  Roch.     Interior  of  nave.     About  1660  A.D. 

orable  logic  of  the  style.  The  large  building  once  ob- 
tained, no  doubt  the  townspeople  enjoyed  its  vastness;  but 
they  would  hardly  have  spent  their  money  for  a  building 
more  than  twice  as  large  as  they  needed.     In  the  case  of 


Sec.  II]  PROVINCES,  N.  AND   S.  OF  FRANCE  417 

the  Louvre,  however,  the  future  structure  was  at  once 
much  more  than  doubled  in  absolute  cubic  contents,  and 
quadrupled  in  extent,  with  no  obvious  purpose  but  that  of 
obtaining  the  grandeur  thought  to  lie  in  great  dimensions, 
or  to  be  unattainable  without  them. 


II 

In  the  provinces  lying  north  of  France  as  ruled  over  by 
Francis  I.  and  his  successors,  the  florid  Gothic  style  had  as 
much  tenacity  of  life  as  in  France  itself.  In  the  year  in 
which  our  present  epoch  begins,  — two  years  later  according 
to  others, — the  exquisite  little  Hotel  de  Ville  of  Audenarde 
was  begun,  and  this  was  finished  about  1530.  It  is  worthy 
to  rank  with  the  larger  building  of  Louvain,  described  in 
Chapter  VII.  and  shown  in  Plate  VI.,  which,  indeed,  it 
strongly  resembles  both  in  general  scheme  and  in  detail. 
The  Hotel  de  Ville  of  Courtrai  is  of  the  same  epoch.  In 
this  a  very  slight  non-Gothic  or  anti-Gothic  feeling  ap- 
pears ;  thus  the  arches  of  the  windows  are  all  semicircular. 
In  the  town  hall  of  Ghent,  built  about  1530,  a  florid  Gothic 
like  that  of  Beauvais  or  Abbeville  or  the  church  of  Brou 
is  triumphant :  there  is  yet  no  trace  of  classical  feeling. 
The  jubes  or  rood-screens  of  Belgian  churches  still  retain 
the  florid  Gothic  at  later  dates  than  these ;  that  of  Wal- 
court  is  dated  1531,  that  of  Dixmude  is  probably  of  1540, 
those  of  Lierre  (S.  Gummar)  and  Aerschot  are  ten  years 
later  in  date,  and  that  of  Tessenderloo  is  known  to  be 
of  1580.  Almost  the  first  important  building  that  can 
be  fixed  upon  as  of  Renaissance  design  is  the   Hotel  de 


4i8 


WESTERN  EUROPE,  1520  TO   1665  A.D. 


[Chap.  VIII 


Ville  at  Antwerp, 
begun  in  1561  and 
finished  in  three  or 
four  years  ;  a  build- 
ing thoroughly 
Italian  in  spirit,  in 
intention,  in  the 
use  of  classical 
orders,  in  mould- 
ings, in  sculpture, 
rusticated  base- 
ment, sequence  of 
the  orders  above  — 
even  the  cornice, 
—  but  strongly 
marked  by  that 
northern  economy 
which  forbids  the 
stories  to  be  much 
higher  and  the 
parts  much  larger 
than  are  needed. 
Somewhat  the 
same  spirit  is  visi- 
ble in  the  chateaux 
of  Blois  and  Cham- 
bord,  and  it  is,  of 

Fig.  216.  Antwerp,  Bel- 
gium :  Church  of  S. 
Charles  Borromeo-  Tower. 
About  1620  A.D. 


Sec.  II]  PROVINCES,  N.   AND   S.  OF  FRANCE  419 

course,  supreme  in  the  private  dwellings  of  the  time. 
The  town  hall  at  Antwerp  shows  it  applied  to  a 
large  civic  building,  and  is  a  valuable  study.  The 
town  hall  of  Hal  near  Brussels  is  of  about  1615;  its 
design  is  strongly  suggestive  of  those  buildings  of  the 
reign  of  Henry  IV.  spoken  of  in  Section  I.  of  this  chapter, 
Place  Royale  and  Place  Dauphine.  Figure  216  shows 
the  little  tower  of  the  church  of  S.  Charles  Borromeo  at 
Antwerp,  erected  soon  after  16 14.  As  a  Jesuit  church 
it  is  naturally  laden  with  ornament  in  a  somewhat  indis- 
criminate way,  but  the  composition  of  its  main  masses  is 
well  worthy  of  study. 

In  Spain,  as  has  been  shown  in  Chapter  VII.,  an  influ- 
ence received  directly  from  Italy  was  clearly  visible  at  a 
time  when  in  France  there  were  but  doubtful  signs  of  it. 
This  was  natural  because  the  florid  Gothic,  strong  as  was 
its  hold  on  Spanish  buildings,  was  still  more  at  home  in 
France ;  better  organized,  better  understood,  a  more  truly 
national  style.  Now,  with  the  beginning  of  the  epoch 
under  consideration,  a  Renaissance  style  is  found  to  exist, 
with  much  of  direct  Italian  feeling  in  it,  and  much  also  of 
a  picturesque  and  highly  adorned  style,  which  is  hardly 
French  of  the  time  of  Francis  I.,  and  hardly  Lombard  of 
the  time  of  Bramante,  but  partakes  of  the  nature  of  both. 
In  one  respect  it  is  inferior  to  both,  —  in  this,  that  it  is 
uncontrolled  and  that  its  builders  seem  to  have  little  sense 
of  what  may  be  done  and  of  what  must  be  avoided.  Thus 
columns  and  pilasters  are  extended  to  excessive  length, 
although  side  by  side  with  others  of  reasonable  and  grace- 
ful proportion.     It  is  not  meant  that  the  strict  rules  for 


420  WESTERN   EUROPE,  15-20  TO   1665   A.D.  [Chap.  VIII 

the  proportions  for  the  classical  orders  are  violated, — those 
rules  had  hardly  been  laid  down  with  authority  in  1525, — 
but  that  pilasters  having  a  height  sixteen  times  their 
width  are  set  up  in  immediate  contrast  with  others  only 
eight  or  nine  times  as  high  as  they  are  wide,  all  support- 
ing the  same  entablature.  This  solecism  exists  in  the 
highly  adorned  front  of  S.  Domingo  at  Salamanca.  In 
the  same  town,  in  the  courtyard  of  the  Irish  College,  there 
are  two  arcades,  of  which  the  one  on  the  ground  story  has 
engaged  columns  with  shafts  extended  to  ten  times  their 
diameter,  while  in  the  second  story  the  place  of  columns 
is  taken  by  candelabra  much  in  the  style  of  the  French 
work  of  the  time.  In  both  these  architectural  composi- 
tions there  is  evident  a  fine  sense  of  general  proportion. 
The  parts  are  well  distributed;  the  fine  massive  tower 
which  looks  down  upon  the  court  of  the  Irish  College,  and 
is  probably  of  the  same  date,  is  not  more  successful  in  its 
ponderous  dignity  than  are  the  arcades  below  in  their 
airy  lightness;  but  the  details,  whether  directly  taken 
from  Italy,  or  Italian  with  northern  feeling  in  them,  are 
misunderstood.  The  time  has  not  yet  come  to  consider 
Spanish  Renaissance  as  a  matured  style.  The  artists  of 
France  were  more  competent  to  guard  every  design  of 
theirs  from  barbarisms.  Whether  they  admitted  more  or 
less  Italian  influence,  they  kept  a  firm  hold  on  the  mem- 
bers of  their  architectural  composition.  Many  buildings 
of  this  epoch  exist  in  Spain,  however,  which  are  without 
fault.  The  porticoes  and  arcades  of  the  great  courts  of 
palaces  are  important,  as  is  natural  in  a  southern  country. 
Figure  217  shows  a  detail  of  the  Casa  Polentina  at  Avila, 


Sec.  II] 


PROVINCES,   N.  AND   S.   OF   FRANCE 


421 


built  about  1550.  Two  buildings  exist  in  Salamanca, 
each  of  about  the  same  date  as  the  two  mentioned 
on  the  last  page,  and  each  more  successful  than  they  as 


^^t.f^jtLff:jfK^.s^j%.y^jt.y^.^K..ft.rK.f%j%j^i^^.^^-fKj^y'tJt.^^.^^.^^ 


^c^o^'jijUa  {  f  f  r  f  ^  (  [  f  c  {  j-  r  r  r  r  s.  c  rr  r  r  r  Cf^ 

Fig.  217.     Avila,  Spain:  Casa  Polentina.      Detail  of  court.     About  1550  A. D. 

a  design.  These  are  the  cloister  of  S.  Domingo  and  the 
porch  of  the  University,  both  buildings  of  the  Transition. 
In  these  the  artist  has  shown  all  the  Spanish  power  of 


422  WESTERN  EUROPE,  1520  TO  1665  A.D.  [Chap.  VIII 

design  in  masses  and  has  known  how  to  invent  or  adopt 
architectural  details  to  correspond.  The  porch  of  the 
University  is  an  astonishing  piece  of  decorative  design. 
It  must  be  considered  as  a  further  development  of  the 
decorative  idea  seen  in  S.  Pablo  of  Valladolid,  Plate  VII. 
A  large  surface  is  covered  with  arabesque  ornamentation 
mingled  with  medallions,  heraldic  shields,  figure  subjects 
in  busts  and  full  length ;  the  whole  distributed  in  panels 
divided  by  upright  and  horizontal  architectural  members, 
the  scale  of  the  ornament  growing  larger  as  the  wall 
ascends.  It  is  a  triumphant  piece  of  ornamental  work, 
and  none  the  worse  for  being  not  strictly  accountable 
to  the  canons  of  any  recognized  style.  The  unfinished 
palace  of  Charles  V.  at  Granada  and  adjoining  the 
Alhambra  is  a  noble  piece  of  simple  Renaissance,  the 
work  of  Pedro  Machuca,  about  1530.  Nothing  can 
exceed  the  large  unity  of  the  design:  a  square  of  a 
little  more  than  two  hundred  feet  is  occupied  by  a 
building  of  great  simplicity  of  plan,  enclosing  a  cir- 
cular court  about  one  hundred  and  ten  feet  in  diameter. 
The  stairways  are  in  the  corners  outside  of  the  circle. 
The  exterior  is  but  little  broken  by  a  projection  in  the 
middle  of  each  front.  It  consists  everywhere  of  one 
order  of  Ionic  pilasters  raised  upon  a  high  rusticated 
basement,  except  that  at  the  centre  pavilions  the  basement 
is  decorated  with  a  Doric  order  with  coupled  columns, 
and  the  upper  story  has  coupled  columns  instead  of  pilas- 
ters (see  Fig.  218).  The  court  is  of  corresponding  design, 
Doric  and  Ionic,  and  has  an  unusual  air  of  tranquillity 
because  of  the  total  absence  of  arches,  the  Doric  columns 


Sec.  II] 


PROVINCES,   N.  AND   S.   OF   FRANCE 


423 


carrying  an  entablature,  and  this  the  Ionic  order  above, 
which  is  similar  in  distribution.     In  this  design  there  is 


Fig.  218.     Granada,  Spain :  Palace  of  Charles  V.     1530  A. d. 

no  lack  of  harmony  between  the  details  and  the  general 
design;    all  has  been  perfectly  felt  and  understood,  and 


424  WESTERN   EUROPE,    1520  TO    1665  A.D.  [Chap.  VIII 

nowhere  in  Europe  is  there  a  finer  instance  of  the  use  of 
classical  architectural  forms  put  to  modern  use. 

Of  the  same  date  is  the  Ayuntamiento,  or  town  hall,  of 
Seville,  a  building  as  peculiar  in  being  covered  thick  with 
carved  ornament  as  the  Granada  palace  is  in  being  free 
from  it.  It  is  a  Renaissance  design  of  that  class  which 
admits  of  arabesques  in  every  pilaster,  every  frieze,  every 
fronton,  every  architrave;  turns  columns  into  candelabra 
or  carves  their  shafts,  and  tops  the  door-heads  with  statu- 
ettes of  cherubs.  In  these  respects  this  building  is  not 
unlike  the  front  of  S.  Domingo  at  Salamanca,  but  it  is 
very  much  better  organized :  it  is  a  piece  of  matured  style 
and  not  of  experiment.  The  word  plateresco,  or  silver- 
ware-like, made  up  from  platero,  a  silversmith,  as  Roma- 
nesco  is  from  Romano,  has  been  applied  to  this  florid 
Renaissance  work  of  Spain  ;^  it  is  not  without  charm, 
and  the  fanciful  sculpture  is  well  held  in  hand. 

Much  later  than  the  above-named  buildings  is  a  splen- 
did example  of  Transition  style.  This  is  the  crossing  of 
nave  and  transept  in  Burgos  Cathedral:  beautiful  within, 
to  any  one  who  is  not  too  much  shocked  by  styles  that 
are  neither  mediaeval  nor  classical  in  their  purity,  and 
crowned  by  a  cimborio^  or  central  tower,  of  surprising 
picturesqueness  and  vigour.  All  of  this  is  later  than 
1539,  when  the  old  work  fell,  —  it  is  said  to  be  as  late  as 
1560,  —  and  it  is  not  surprising  to  find  classical  details 
used  in  many  parts  of  it:  what  is  surprising  is  the  suc- 

^  The  term  is  loosely  used,  at  least  by  non-Spanish  writers,  and  is  applied  to 
designs  of  the  sixteenth  century  which  are  merely  bad,  that  is,  immature,  and 
with  details  awkwardly  combined. 


Sec.  II]  PROVINCES,  N.  AND   S.  OF   FRANCE  425 

cessful  use  of  such  seemingly  incongruous  elements  in 
one  composition.  Only  about  a  decade  later  is  the 
Escorial  (i  563-1 584,  according  to  the  usual  chronology), 
and  in  this  the  most  severe  and  chilling  uniformity  pre- 
vails. The  interior  of  the  church,  or  chapel  of  the  palace, 
which  was  also  a  conventual  church  in  a  sense,  and  a 
building  of  a  very  considerable  size  and  importance,  is  of 
a  surprising  dignity ;  it  is  worthy  of  study  in  this,  that 
it  looks  even  larger  than  it  is.  In  the  cloister  the  vault- 
ing of  cut  stone  is  exposed  undecorated  and  uncoloured; 
it  is  extremely  curious  to  see  groined  vaulting,  such,  at 
least  in  form,  as  the  ignorant  ninth-century  masons  used, 
with  its  transverse  arches,  wall-arches,  and  lunettes  com- 
plete but  executed  in  neatly  cut  blocks.  One  cannot 
but  feel  that  classical  Roman  practice  on  the  one  hand, 
or  Gothic  building  with  ribs  on  the  other,  would  have 
been  a  great  deal  cheaper.  Ignorance  of  what  the  Ro- 
man method  was,  and  contempt  for  the  Gothic  method 
because  it  was  Gothic,  make  up  together  the  secret  of 
this  apparent  departure  from  natural  and  easy  methods. 
The  seventeenth  century  in  Spain  is  not  a  brilliant 
architectural  epoch.  In  general  the  somewhat  florid 
variety  of  earlier  times,  which  calls  upon  the  archaeologist 
to  seek  carefully  for  its  derivation  and  cause,  has  passed 
into  most  chilling  monotony ;  or,  if  traces  of  the  old  facile 
ingenuity  remain,  these  are  found  in  the  most  incongru- 
ous and  unsightly  masses  used  as  substitutes  for  Roman 
orders.  Of  the  few  exceptions  there  may  be  mentioned 
the  buildings  at  Santiago  de  Compostela,  which  adjoin  the 
west  front  of  the  cathedral,  and  are  devoted  to  the  Chap- 


426  WESTERN   EUROPE,   1520  TO  1665   A.D.  [Chap.  VIII 

ter  and  its  Library.  It  is  very  curious  to  see  in  these 
last-named  the  Renaissance  feehng  so  strongly  manifested 
after  a  lapse  of  two  hundred  years,  and  also  to  note  that 
independence  of  Italian  example  which  was  so  common 
with  the  earlier. and  better  work,  though  now  combined 
with  the  poor  detail  of  the  seventeenth  century.  The 
artist  in  charge  of  the  work  must  have  been  a  man  of 
great  natural  powers  to  have  got  so  easily  the  singular 
grace  of  proportion  seen  in  the  west  towers  and  the 
sombre  dignity  of  the  library  buildings  adjoining. 


Ill 

The  strange  thing  which  we  call  the  German  Renais- 
sance cannot  be  rightly  judged  by  those  who  insist  on 
comparing  it  with  its  Italian  prototype,  or  its  French, 
Spanish,  and  Belgian  congeners.  The  student  must  study 
this  curiously  simple  and  yet  picturesque  architecture  by 
and  for  itself.  The  buildings  are  almost  always  small  in 
their  parts,  inexpensive  in  their  construction,  cheap  and 
simple  in  their  material.  The  mediaeval  feeling  for  high- 
ridged  and  pointed  roofs,  for  dormer  windows,  turrets 
crowned  with  spires,  belfries,  balconies,  and  a  general  ten- 
dency toward  beetling  and  overhanging  fronts,  was  still 
present.  So  far  from  diminishing,  this  tendency  toward 
picturesqueness  of  treatment  may  even  be  thought  to  have 
grown  stronger  in  the  sixteenth  century.  The  use  of 
pseudo-classical  details,  and  even  of  columns  and  pedestals 
fairly  well  copied  from  Italian  models,  in  no  way  interferes 
with  or  hinders  the  free  development  of  this  unruly  and 


Sec.  Ill]  GERMANY  427 

unrestrained  designing.  A  few  critically  accurate  Italian- 
ized designs  are  to  be  found,  but  they  form  a  sharp  con- 
trast with  the  vast  majority  of  structures  of  their  own 
time.  To  form  a  true  conception  of  the  German  Renais- 
sance, one  should  visit,  perhaps,  Rothenburg  on  the  Tauber, 
on  the  extreme  western  boundary  of  Bavaria.  Here  the 
little  town  seems,  except  for  the  alterations  around  the 
railway  station,  unaltered  since  the  Thirty  Years'  War. 
From  the  low  walls  one  looks  out  over  the  green  coun- 
try, where  no  modern  suburbs  break  the  sweep  of  the 
fields  up  to  the  very  ditch,  leaving  the  ramparts  as  defen- 
sible as  ever,  —  once  the  embrasures  repaired,  —  against 
seventeenth-century  means  of  attack.  Within  the  walls, 
the  streets  are  not  very  narrow  nor  very  winding,  but  they 
are  what  they  have  always  been.  The  town  seems  not  to 
have  been  crowded,  nor  to  have  tended  to  outgrow  the 
limits  of  the  fortifications.  There  are  no  Gothic  buildings 
except  parts  of  the  churches  in  the  town,  nor  any  modern 
ones,  —  or  so,  at  least,  the  student  will  think.  The  whole 
place  is  now  as  it  was  in  the  seventeenth  century,  public 
and  private  buildings  alike.  The  extremely  interesting 
Rathhaus  is  dated  15 72-1 590.  Its  design  would  seem  to 
be  of  a  half-century  earlier  but  that  one  learns  from  expe- 
rience how  slowly  decided  modifications  of  style  appear  in 
this  long  period  of  Transition.  In  the  neighbouring  town 
of  Dinkelsbuehl  are  some  timber  houses,  finer  than  any- 
thing in  Rothenburg,  where,  indeed,  the  masons  had  it  all 
their  own  way.  The  house  called  "The  German  House" 
(Deutsches  Haus),  in  Dinkelsbuehl,  has  four  stories  in  its 
gable  and  three  in  the  wall  below.     The  timber  construe- 


428  WESTERN   EUROPE,  1520  TO    1665   A.D.  [Chap.  VIII 

tion  is  complicated,  with  many  braces  and  struts  put  in 
for  ornamental  purpose,  and  the  patterns  made  by  these 
are  Gothic  in  character.  On  the  other  hand,  all  the  chief 
parts  of  the  framing,  such  as  the  uprights  and  horizontals 
of  the  windows  and  those  which  form  the  main  structure 
of  the  gable,  considered  as  one  truss  of  the  roof,  project 
boldly ;  and  these  are  carved  into  terminal  figures,  pilas- 
ters filled  with  arabesques,  and  entablatures  worked  with 
classical  mouldings.  Such  timber-framed  houses  as  this 
are  very  common,  and  their  dates  are  frequently  easy  to 
fix.  The  one  we  have  described  is  undoubtedly  of  1542, 
and  a  later  restoration  has  not  disguised  or  confused  the 
character  of  the  earlier  work.  At  Halberstadt  are  some 
superb  wooden  houses  of  1550.  Hildesheim,  near  Han- 
over, is  perhaps  the  richest  town  in  fine  wooden-framed 
houses  (see  Fig.  219).  They  are  very  numerous  there,  and 
the  house  of  the  Butchers'  Guild  is  a  marvel  of  decorative 
effectiveness.  This  last  has  been  restored  recently,  with 
all  its  original  colouring  carefully  reproduced ;  and  it  is  as 
important  as  a  piece  of  architectural  colour  as  it  is  in  form 
and  construction.  At  Duderstadt,  near  Gottingen,  the 
Rathhaus  is  dated  1528.  It  is  entirely  of  timber  construc- 
tion above  the  stone  basement,  and  is  an  excellent  type  of 
the  larger  and  more  important  buildings  of  the  time  when 
built  chiefly  of  wood.  In  this  instance,  three  octagonal 
turrets  adorn  the  front,  two  of  them  carried  on  stone  cor- 
beling and  one  on  a  fantastic  semi-Gothic  shaft,  all  of 
which  stone-work  forms  part  of  the  design  of  the  base- 
ment. These  turrets  are  covered  with  tiling,  the  walls  as 
well  as  the  spires,  above  the  line  whence  the  gables  spring. 


Sec.  Ill] 


GERMANY 


429 


while  all  their  projecting  oriel-window-like  stories  below 
are  combined  with  the  visible  framing  of  the  walls  in  one 
design.     In  this  way  the  line  where  the  gables  begin  is 


Fig.  219.     Hildesheim,  Germany:  Wooden  framed  house.     Close  of  sixteenth  century. 


emphasized  in  the  strongest  way,  and  the  whole  design  is 
divided  into  three  well-marked  bands.  It  may  be  thought 
that  some  classical  feeling  is  shown  in  this  insistence  upon 
the  horizontal  line;  it  is  certainly  a  feeling  less  familiar  in 
German  Gothic  than  is  to  be  wished,  and  in  so  far  the 


430  WESTERN  EUROPE,  1520  TO   1665   A.D.  [Chap.  VIII 

Italian  influence  may  be  considered  beneficial.  At  Dan- 
zig, on  the  Baltic  Sea,  there  are  many  houses  of  the  years 
1 5  50- 1 5  70,  some  of  which  are  of  great  beauty,  and  which 
group  admirably  in  long-continued  fa9ades  on  the  streets, 
as  in  the  Langgasse  and  in  the  Langemarkt.  The  houses 
are  all  of  masonry,  and  have  a  certain  character  of  stateli- 
ness  and  elegance,  united  with  the  picturesque  effect  pro- 
duced by  their  long  rows  of  gables  of  varying  form  and 
the  somewhat  extravagant  nature  of  many  of  their  details. 
The  house  No.  38  of  the  Langgasse  is  indeed  distin- 
guished by  two  entablatures  of  Roman  Doric  style,  and 
by  a  frieze  of  sculpture  which  has  been  studied  from  good 
Italian  work  of  about  1500;  but  these  three  pieces  are 
used  merely  as  sill-courses  for  the  large  windows  of  the 
front,  and  have  an  appearance  of  support  from  corbels 
carved  with  human  heads.  The  door-piece  is,  however,  of 
formal  Italian  design,  with  Doric  columns  and  entabla- 
ture. The  house  adjoining.  No.  37,  is  adorned  with  pilas- 
ters to  which  a  semblance  of  Doric,  Ionic,  and  Corinthian 
style  has  been  given ;  and  these  pilasters  support  entab- 
latures of  that  curious  sort  in  which  the  frieze  is  increased 
to  three  or  four  times  its  normal  width,  and  charged  with 
sculpture,  but  also  divided  into  panels  by  a  sort  of  pro- 
longation of  the  pilasters  below.  Each  of  these  houses 
has  a  gable  of  irregular  outline,  made  up  of  concave  and 
convex  curves;  the  one  is  dated  1563  and  the  other  1567. 
They  are  typical  of  long  rows  of  houses  in  this  and  other 
streets.  Contrasting  with  these  is  a  stately  mansion  of 
about  the  same  date,  in  which  four  stories  of  fairly  regular 
order  are  crowned  by  a  gable  most  skilfully  combined,  as 


Sec.  Ill] 


GERMANY 


431 


to  design,  with  the  formal  front  below.  This  is  a  very 
noble  house,  and  the  sculpture,  which  is  used  with  great 
reserve  and   only  where  much   needed,   is  fine   and  well 


Fig.  220.     Danzig,  Germany:  Zeughaus  or  Arsenal.     About  1605  A.D. 

modelled.  The  Zeughaus,  a  kind  of  arsenal  of  the  town, 
is  of  1 6 10,  and  reminds  one  curiously  of  the  buildings  of 
Henry  IV.  in  France,  though  having  so  much  more  of  the 
irregular,  and  in  this  case  excessive,  oddity  of  detail.  Fig- 
ure 220  gives  a  part  of  one  of  the  fronts  of  this  curious 


432  WESTERN  EUROPE,  1520  TO   1665   A.D.  [Chap.  VIII 

structure,  built  of  brick,  with  quoins  and  other  details  of 
stone.  Over  all  the  city  towers  the  really  beautiful  spire  of 
the  Rathhausof  the  Rechtstadt,  built  about  1560,  and  wor- 
thily crowning  the  building  of  an  earlier  date,  which  with  the 
spire  is  entirely  of  brick.  Churches  and  public  and  private 
buildings  vie  with  one  another  to  make  this  city,  far  away 
on  the  borders  of  Poland,  one  of  the  most  interesting  in 
Europe  for  buildings  where  a  certain  independence  of 
academic  rules  has  resulted  fortunately  for  the  pictu- 
resque effect  of  separate  buildings,  groups  of  buildings,  and 
whole  quarters  of  the  town.  On  the  other  hand,  there 
are  buildings  which  affect  the  not  unpleasing  formality,  as 
if  in  advance,  of  the  eighteenth  century ;  and  one  of  the 
gates,  the  Langgasserthor,  is  a  Roman  triumphal  arch 
in  distribution,  adorned  with  free  columns  in  two  orders, 
carrying  ressauts  of  great  boldness.  The  Rathhaus  of 
Cologne,  built  between  1569  and  1 571,  is  an  example  of 
systematized  neo-classic  architecture,  comparable  to  the 
Hotel  de  Ville  of  Antwerp  (see  p.  418).  The  very  graceful 
portico  of  two  stories  is  given  in  Fig.  221.  Of  a  later 
date  is  the  interesting  Rathhaus  of  Ratisbon,  in  Bavaria,  of 
which  a  part  is  given  in  Fig.  222.  The  severity  of  design 
in  this  forms  a  curious  contrast  to  the  lack  of  restraint 
seen  in  so  many  of  the  buildings  of  the  time.  The  impor- 
tant church  of  S.  Michael  at  Munich  (1582-90)  is  built 
with  a  groined  vault,  resembling  that  of  S.  Roch,  given  in 
Fig.  215,  except  that  the  minor  arches  of  the  lunettes  are 
lower,  and  leave  the  great  barrel-vault  almost  unbroken 
(see  Fig.  223).  The  fine  interior  is  marred  by  an  order 
and  a  system  of  roof-decoration  immeasurably  inferior  to 


5  o 

'■'■■' 


25 


Fig.  221.     Cologne,  Germany:  Entrance  porch  of  Rathhaus.     About  1570  A.  D. 


434 


WESTERN   EUROPE,  1520  TO    1665   A.D. 


[Chap.  VIII 


the  corresponding  details  of  S.  Roch.  On  the  other  hand, 
the  main  masses  are  combined  in  the  most  logical  way. 
Exterior  and   interior   are  strictly  in    harmony,  and   the 


Fig.  222.     Ratisbon,  Germany:  Door  of  the  Rathhaus.     About  1662  a.d. 

severe  front  is  adorned  with  portrait-statues  of  the  time, 
which  are  wonderfully  appropriate  and  helpful  to  the 
design. 

The  well-known  buildings  of  Heidelberg  Castle,  "  Otto 


Sec.  Ill] 


GERMANY 


435 


Heinrichs-Bau"  of  1556,  and  "Friedrichs-Bau"  of  i6oi,are 
excellent  types  of  the  German  Renaissance  of  their  time; 


Fig.  223.     Munich,  Germany:  Church  of  S.  Michael.     Interior  of  nave.      1585  a.d. 

and  of  the  same  date  is  the  admirable  house  in  the  town, 
the  inn  whose  sign  is  The  Knight,  "  Zum  Ritter."  One  of 
the  most  curious  instances  of   decorative   architecture  in 


436  WESTERN  EUROPE,  1520  TO    1665  A.D.  [Chap.  VIII 

Europe  is  certainly  the  north  front  of  the  Friedrichs- 
Bau,  where  the  architect  of  the  Count  Palatine  has  tried  to 
make  a  large  front  both  formal  and  fantastic,  —  at  once 
academic  and  picturesque.  He  has  drawn  inspiration  from 
Venetian  palaces,  Roman  churches,  and  the  earlier  efforts 
of  his  fellow-countrymen,  and  has  produced  a  mixture 
which  must  be  classed  as  very  bad  architecture,  its  un- 
doubtedly spirited  effect  coming  from  the  play  of  light  and 
shade  on  its  long  succession  of  sharp-edged  masses,  as  if 
upon  a  natural  cliff. 

A  curious  contrast  to  these  over-picturesque  buildings, 
crowded  with  details  which  belong  to  no  recognized  style 
and  seem  to  have  had  no  development,  but  to  have  sprung 
ready  made  from  a  restless  brain,  are  those  chateaux 
(Schloesser)  so  frequent  in  the  remoter  parts  of  Germany 
which  have  almost  no  architectural  detail  at  all.  Every 
traveller  in  central  and  southern  Germany  will  remember 
these  huge  whitewashed  buildings  rising  from  the  hilltops ; 
there  is  one  of  them  of  1550  at  Fuessen  in  Bavaria,  and 
one  of  1650  at  Hoernitz  near  Zittau,  on  the  Bohemian 
frontier ;  but  indeed  they  are  numerous  in  Germany  and 
in  Austria-Hungary  as  well.  They  are  high-walled  and 
high-roofed,  crowned  with  turrets  and  bell-gables ;  their 
lofty  buildings  are  arranged  around  courtyards,  which  are 
finally  enclosed  by  high  walls ;  in  fact,  they  are  the  regular 
descendants  of  the  strong  castles  of  the  Middle  Ages,  and 
those  who  have  visited  the  Wartburg  to  see  the  Luther 
relics  can  form  from  that  much  older  building  a  sufficient 
idea  of  the  seventeenth-century  country  mansions  which 
are   under   consideration.      The  strong  tendency  toward 


Sec.  IV]  ENGLAND  437 

picturesque  effect,  which  is  characteristic  of  German  work 
at  all  times,  and  which  leads  to  fine  results  in  the  two  cen- 
turies before  1665,  is  well  seen  in  these  wholly  unadorned 
and,  in  a  sense,  unarchitectural  groups  of  building. 


IV 


The  epoch  of  one  hundred  and  forty-five  years  now 
under  consideration  covers  English  history  as  follows: 
some  years  of  Henry  VIII.,  the  disturbed  and  brief  royal- 
ties of  Edward  VI.  and  of  Mary,  the  comparatively  quiet 
reigns  of  Elizabeth  and  of  James  I.,  together  with  fifteen 
years  o£  Charles  I.,  these  three  making  up  a  time  of 
change,  growth,  and,  on  the  whole,  natural  and  healthy 
progress  in  architecture ;  and  finally  the  disturbed  time  of 
the  civil  war,  the  Commonwealth,  and  five  years  of  the 
Restoration.  It  is  evident,  therefore,  that  political  circum- 
stances encouraged  building  during  only  those  eighty  years 
which  form  the  middle  of  the  longer  epoch.  During  those 
years,  what  was  known  as  the  Tudor  style  was  superseded 
rather  abruptly  by  the  Elizabethan  architecture,  and  this 
was  continued  by  what  has  been  called  the  Jacobean  style ; 
the  reign  of  Charles  I.  was  marked  by  serious  attempts  to 
introduce  the  completed  and  regulated  Italian  architecture, 
but  these  succeeded  only  in  part,  and  the  Great  Rebellion 
closed  this  era  of  transition.  In  1666  the  great  fire  of 
London,  coming  only  five  years  after  the  restoration  of 
Charles  II.,  marks  well  enough  the  beginning,  under  Wren, 
of   the    unquestioned   supremacy    of    Italian    methods   of 


438  WESTERN  EUROPE,    1520  TO    1665  A.D.  [Chap.  VIII 

design,  and   the  beginning  of   the  later  epoch  treated  in 
Chapter  IX. 

At  no  time  during  this  long  period  was  Gothic  feeling 
absent.  It  holds  with  even  greater  persistence  than  in 
France  its  position  as  an  independent  style,  and  influences 
even  more  than  in  Germany  the  transitional  architecture 
which  was  growing  up.  Henry  VII.'s  chapel,  mentioned 
in  the  last  chapter,  was  succeeded  by  such  buildings  as 
the  hall  of  Christ  Church  at  Oxford,  in  which  four-cen- 
tred arches  are  used  for  the  windows,  which  are  filled 
with  perpendicular  tracery,  and  the  beautiful  wooden  roof 
has  the  same  form  of  the  flattened  or  depressed  pointed 
arch  for  the  controlling  lines  of  its  design.  This  building 
has  no  single  classical  feature,  although  it  was  finished 
about  1530,  and  was  therefore  one  hundred  years  later 
than  the  establishment  of  the  Renaissance  architecture 
in  Italy.  Haddon  Hall,  in  Derbyshire,  the  favourite  place 
of  resort  for  visitors  interested  in  the  picturesqueness  of 
the  Transition  architecture,  was  brought  to  its  present 
shape,  in  the  main,  about  1540.  It  was  added  to  and 
altered  in  the  years  following,  but  its  long  lines  of  build- 
ing, one  story  high  above  a  basement,  varied  by  projecting 
bay  windows  both  square  and  polygonal,  their  openings 
filled  with  a  system  of  mullions  and  transoms,  low  towers 
rising  at  intervals,  and  the  wall  everywhere  fringed  with 
square  battlements,  which  form  the  sky-line,  as  no  roof 
is  visible :  all  this  makes  up  a  perfect  example  of  the 
Tudor  domestic  architecture,  passing  into  the  earliest 
Elizabethan.  As  late  as  1555,  S.  John's  College  at  Oxford 
shows    in    its    garden-front   almost   exactly   that    Tudor- 


Sec.  IV]  ENGLAND  439 

Gothic  Style  described  in  Chapter  VII.  The  four-cen- 
tred arches  have  passed  into  three-centred  arches  in  a 
part  of  the  work ;  battlements  crown  the  low  wall ;  the 
roof  is  rather  steeper  than  usual,  and  this  in  England 
means  an  early  style  far  more  than  on  the  continent. 
Some  classical  sculpture  there  is  upon  the  oriel-windows, 
and  the  corbels  which  carry  them  are  neo-classic  in  charac- 
ter, but  all  this  is  so  late  in  style  that  it  clearly  belongs  to 
nearly  the  same  epoch  as  the  doorway  to  the  garden  and 
the  alterations  made  by  Inigo  Jones.  Such  classical 
details  as  these,  if  of  the  same  time  as  the  building 
proper,  would  have  to  be  classified  with  the  tombs,  many 
of  which  exist  in  English  churches  of  Italian  or  French 
Renaissance  design,  and  of  an  earlier  date  than  the  Ox- 
ford College.  These  tombs  are  of  course  by  continental 
artists,  sometimes  brought  to  England  by  their  employers, 
and  sometimes  sending  their  finished  work.  Just  as  in 
Germany,  the  classical  orders,  or  some  semblance  of  them, 
were  used  in  porches  of  buildings  which  otherwise  knew 
no  such  foreign  elements  of  design,  so  these  tombs  were 
easy  to  bring  under  the  influence  of  Italian  or  Franco- 
Italian  art,  while  manor-houses  and  churches  remained 
in  the  hands  of  native  builders. 

What  is  called  the  Elizabethan  is  one  of  the  most 
curious  transition  styles  known  in  European  history.  It 
is  like  the  Tudor  style  of  the  reigns  of  Henry  VII.  and 
Henry  VIII.,  except  that  every  detail  which  might  have 
a  Gothic  look  is  taken  out,  and  scraps  of  classical  detail 
are  put  in  their  places,  but  timidly  and  with  reserve. 
There  is  in  consequence  a  lack  of  detail   in  the  earliest 


440 


WESTERN  EUROPE,   1520  TO   1665  A.D.  [Chap.  VIII 


examples ;  thus  the  so-called  Duke's  House  near  Bradford- 
on-Avon  in  Wiltshire  is  a  small  mansion-house  with 
gables  and  picturesque  chimneys,  and  with  the  walls  break- 


FiG.  224.     Bramshill  manor-house,  England :  Detail  of  front.      1609  A.D. 

ing  out  in  numerous  bay  windows.  These  bay  windows 
and  the  flat  walls  are  alike  pierced  with  as  many  mul- 
lioned  windows  as  they  can  hold,  and  the  building  is 
picturesque   and    attractive  when   seen  from   a  little   dis- 


Sec.  IV]  ENGLAND  44 1 

tance,  but  it  is  so  devoid  of  ornament  that  it  seems 
bare  on  a  nearer  view.  There  is  no  doubt  that  this 
building  is  of  about  1567,  or  in  other  words  of  the  second 
decade  of  Elizabeth's  reign.  The  system  described  is 
well  shown  in  the  house  of  Bramshill,  Surrey  (Fig.  224), 
although  this  is  of  somewhat  later  date.  A  much  larger 
manor-house  is  the  great  mansion  of  Longleat  in  Wilt- 
shire. In  this  palace  there  is  no  visible  roof,  and  of 
course  no  gables,  but  the  wall  is  pierced  with  windows 
and  broken  up  with  bay  windows,  and  those  windows 
are  filled  with  the  stone  bars,  mullions,  and  transoms 
which  superseded  Gothic  tracery;  —  in  short  all  below 
the  sky-line  is  treated  in  as  picturesque  a  manner  as  in 
the  Duke's  House  itself.  The  difference  is  in  the  some- 
what freer  introduction  of  flat  pilasters,  one  order  to  each 
story ;  but  only  on  the  bay  windows,  which  are  emphasized 
in  this  way ;  and  in  the  use  of  columns  and  an  entablature 
in  the  small  and  unpretending  porch.  The  huge  palace 
of  Wollaton  Hall  in  Nottinghamshire  was  built  shortly 
after  1580,  and  this  has  as  many  windows  as  Longleat, 
as  picturesque  a  breaking-up  of  its  walls,  and  an  even 
more  mediaeval  outline  and  grouping.  On  the  other  hand, 
it  has  pilasters  and  entablatures  used  more  freely  than 
at  Longleat.  What  is  especially  of  importance  in  our 
enquiry  at  Wollaton,  is  the  free  introduction  of  that  pecul- 
iar Elizabethan  ornament  which  consists  largely  of  scrolls 
and  cartouches,  and  ignores  alike  the  beauty  of  Gothic 
and  that  of  Renaissance  sculpture.  Figure  225  gives  one 
of  the  four  angle  towers  of  Wollaton.  Certainly  this  sys- 
tem of  ornamentation  cannot  be  praised,  but,  as  an  insep- 


442 


WESTERN   EUROPE,    1520  TO    1665   AD. 


[Chap.  VIII 


arable    part   of   the    Elizabethan   architecture,  which   has 
many   virtues   of    its   own,    these    straps    and    scrolls   are 

accepted  without  disfavour. 
Such  manor-houses  as  those 
named  were  built  all  over 
England  about  this  time. 
The  great  nobles  were  re- 
placing their  feudal  for- 
tresses by  country  houses 
of  more  habitable  charac- 
ter, exactly  as  was  being 
done  on  the  continent. 
Burleigh  House,  near  Stam- 
ford in  Lincolnshire,  was 
built  in  1577;  Wollaton  in 
1590;  Longford  Castle  in 
Wiltshire  in  1591 ;  Cobham 
Hall  in  Kent,  1594-99; 
Hardwich  Hall  in  Derby- 
shire, about  1597;  Ingestre 
Hall  in  Staffordshire,  about 
1601  ;  Montacute 
House,  in  Somerset- 
shire, about  1 610; 
and  Hatfield  House, 
in  Herefordshire,  at 
the  same  time.  All 
these  are  "  Elizabethan,"  that  is,  they  are  not  at  all  classi- 
cal in  their  general  conception :  they  are  mediaeval  build- 
ings with  Gothic  details  left  out,  and  with  a  good  deal  of 


Fig.  225. 


Wollaton   Hall,   England : 
1590  A.D. 


Angle   tower 


Sec.  IV]  ENGLAND  443 

hesitation  visible  in  every  part  as  to  what  should  be  put 
in  its  place.  This  is  v^ell  illustrated  by  the  doorway  of 
Gainford  Hall  in  Durham  County,  shown  in  Fig.  226. 
A  comparison  of  this  with  the  details  of  Italian  buildings 
of  any  date  following  1420  will  show  the  completely  non- 
traditional  character  of  the  classic  details  employed.  In 
these  buildings  there  is  a  great  diversity  in  the  amount 
and  character  of  the  classical  architecture  introduced,  and 
this  is  visible  as  much  in  the  general  design  as  in  the 
details.  There  is  no  unanimity,  no  general  acceptance  of 
a  style  which  all  may  follow.  Thus  at  Longford  Castle, 
the  celebrated  entrance-front  has  a  centrepiece  with 
arcades  about  fifty  feet  wide ;  the  arcade  on  the  ground 
floor  has  four-centred  arches  of  a  Tudor  appearance, 
springing  directly  from  the  capitals  of  what  are  meant 
for  Roman  Doric  columns ;  on  the  floor  above,  the  arcade 
is  so  far  classical  that  the  columns  are  between  the  arches 
and  carry  their  own  entablature,  while  the  arches  them- 
selves are  semicircular  and  spring  from  Roman  imposts, 
but  all  the  minor  details  are  as  non-Roman  as  possible. 
Other  parts  of  this  front  are  almost  German  in  their 
mingling  of  pilasters  of  fantastic  and  non-classical  form 
with  terminal  figures,  and  the  crowning  of  the  whole 
with  gables  of  curved  outline.  The  other  fronts  of  this 
house  are  Tudor  in  style,  without  admixture. 

Of  a  later  date  than  any  of  those  named  above  is  Rush- 
ton  Hall,  Northamptonshire;  for  this,  though  begun  in 
1595,  was  not  finished  till  1630,  and  yet  seems  to  be  of  the 
same  design  throughout.  In  plan  it  is  stately  and  like  a 
great  French  chateau,  the  main  building  surrounding  three 


Fig.  226.     Gainford  Hall,  England  :  Entrance  doorway.     About  1600  a.d. 


Sec,  IV]  ENGLAND  445 

sides  of  a  court,  which  is  closed  on  the  fourth  side  by  a 
one-story  structure  with  a  terrace  roof,  in  which  the  prin- 
cipal entrance  is  marked  by  a  somewhat  decorative  arch- 
way. This  entrance-front  is  entirely  characteristic  of  the 
whole  structure;  no  part  of  it  is  more  classical  than  this 
or  has  more  to  say  of  an  influence  from  Italy  coming  di- 
rectly or  by  way  of  France.  BHckling  Hall,  Norfolkshire, 
though  finished  earlier  than  Rushton,  had  been  begun 
much  later;  it  was  built  complete  during  the  two  or  three 
years  immediately  preceding  the  accession  of  Charles  I. 
It  is  a  Tudor  building  throughout,  built  of  brick,  with 
stone  copings,  bay  windows,  window  architraves,  and 
quoins;  entirely  picturesque  and  non-classic  in  treatment, 
and  absolutely  without  any  use  of  the  Roman  orders  or 
their  imitations,  except  at  the  main  door  of  entrance. 
Ashton  Hall,  at  Birmingham,  is  of  the  same  date  and 
the  same  character.  The  words  used  above  to  describe 
BHckling  will  serve  for  Ashton  also. 

All  the  above  are  mansions  of  stone  and  brick  built  with 
considerable  regard  to  stateliness  of  effect,  as  stateliness 
was  understood  in  England  and  in  the  country,  where  the 
conditions  were  of  course  different  from  those  of  a  city 
square  in  Rome  or  Paris.  Contemporary  with  them  are 
numerous  half-timbered  houses,  in  which  stateliness  is 
non-existent,  and  a  certain  homeliness  replaces  it  which  is 
most  agreeable  to  the  modern  lover  of  home.  These 
half-timbered  buildings  are  built  with  frames  of  solid  oak 
sticks,  put  together  with  mortise-and-tenon  joints,  and 
wooden  pins  to  hold  the  tenons.  The  square  and  trian- 
gular spaces  left  open  between  the  posts,  ties,  and  braces 


446  WESTERN   EUROPE,   1520  TO    1665   A.D.  [Chap.  VIII 

are  then  filled  with  mason-work  of  some  kind,  which  is 
brought  to  a  smooth  surface  flush  with  the  face  of  the 
timber- work.  Such  a  building  is  Bramhall  in  Cheshire, 
with  a  long  row  of  gables  on  the  garden-front.  Another, 
and  a  very  celebrated  one,  is  Moreton  Old  Hall,  Cheshire, 
the  gable  walls  of  which  irregular  structure  are  built  over- 
hanging in  two  or  three  stages,  and  whose  timber  framing 
is  even  more  irregular  and  unsymmetrical  than  that  of 
Bramhall.  Figure  227  gives  a  part  of  the  garden-front  of 
Moreton,  showing  large  bay  windows,  of  which  each  face  is 
topped  by  a  gable  and  is  filled  with  glazed  sash.  Still 
another,  and  a  somewhat  more  carefully  planned  and 
built,  example  is  Park  Hall  near  Whittington  in  Cheshire. 
In  the  city  itself  of  Chester  are  buildings,  dwelling-houses, 
and  shops  built  of  the  same  materials  and  in  the  same 
manner,  some  of  them  of  the  years  1600  to  1660,  though 
many  of  them  are  earlier.  There  is  no  difference  in  the 
matter  of  elegance  and  cost  of  construction  between  these 
houses  of  citizens  and  the  mansions  of  country  gentlemen 
which  have  been  described.  In  all  there  is  the  same 
marked  simplicity,  the  same  domestic  and  unpretending 
appearance,  as  of  cottages  built  for  quiet  living,  and  in  all 
there  is  to  be  noted  the  same  absence  of  any  architectural 
style.  The  stone  and  brick-and-stone  mansions  are  either 
Perpendicular  Gothic,  or  Tudor,  or  Elizabethan,  or  Jaco- 
bean; even  if  displaying  a  mixture  of  styles,  as  is  natural 
in  a  period  of  transition,  they  tell  the  beholder  what  style 
or  styles  they  affect.  But  the  half-timbered  houses  are 
neither  Gothic  nor  post-Gothic  in  character:  the  fifteenth- 
century  and  the  seventeenth-century  examples  can  hardly 


'?cf'>^rf^i;VB*^' 


;i.^S»<?^- 


Fig.  227.     Moreton  Old  Hall,  England.    Garden-front.     About  1590. 


448  WESTERN  EUROPE,  1520  TO   1665   A.D.  [Chap.  VIII 

be  distinguished;  or  not  distinguished  at  all  but  by  small 
details,  as  of  carved  ornament  around  a  porch  or  a  hip- 
knob.  This  simple  and  in  a  sense  rustic  aspect  of  the 
timber-framed  houses,  as  contrasted  with  the  more  eran- 
diose  air  of  such  houses  as  Bramshill  and  Wollaton,  has 
given  rise  to  the  theory  that  the  native  Englishman,  of 
mingled  British  and  Saxon  race,  is  represented  in  the  one, 
and  the  Norman  in  the  other  class  of  mansion.  This  is 
perhaps  impossible  to  demonstrate  or  to  maintain  seri- 
ously, but  at  all  events  the  one  class  of  house  may  be 
taken  to  represent  the  stay-at-home  land-owner,  and  the 
other  the  court  noble,  who  went  up  to  London  annually 
and  met  foreigners,  if  indeed  he  did  not  follow  the  wars 
abroad.  Both  classes  of  houses  represent  native  English 
habits  of  building  in  superintendents  and  workmen  alike, 
and  in  this  they  are  different  from  the  buildings  which 
professed  architects  were  desirous  of  building  when  they 
could  obtain  a  royal  or  princely  patron.  Inigo  Jones,  a 
Welshman,  who  had  had  unusual  opportunities  of  foreign 
study,  and  who  had  extraordinary  powers  of  design,  recom- 
mended himself  to  the  nobility  in  the  first  place  as  a  deco- 
rator and  scene  painter  and  organizer  of  masques ;  and  at 
last,  when  he  was  fifty  years  old,  made  it  seem  to  some  of 
his  patrons  desirable  to  carry  out  a  part  of  his  stately 
designs  in  the  Italian  taste.  About  1620  what  is  called 
the  Banqueting  House  at  Whitehall,  but  which  is  used  as 
the  Royal  Chapel,  a  stately  front,  not  large  but  of  great 
dignity  of  design,  facing  the  Horse  Guards,  was  erected ; 
the  only  part  ever  built  of  an  immense  palace  designed  to 
please  King  Charles  I.     This  building  is  one  hundred  and 


Sec.  IV]  ENGLAND  449 

ten  feet  long  by  fifty-five  high,  and  consists  of  a  basement 
with  square  windows  upon  which  are  raised  two  orders  of 
almost  exactly  the  same  size  and  crowned  with  a  high 
parapet.  The  two  orders  correspond  with  two  rows  of 
square  windows,  but  there  is  only  one  story  in  the  build- 
ing. The  Banqueting  House  formed  only  one  member 
of  a  very  long  front,  and  the  drawings  that  have  been 
preserved  make  it  clear  that  Inigo  Jones'  intention 
was  to  keep  his  orders  of  the  same  height  throughout, 
and  to  make  his  entablatures  continuous.  Nearly  all 
designs  in  the  developed  neo-classic  style  of  the  seven- 
teenth century  —  the  Italian  or  Palladian  style,  as  it  is 
commonly  called  in  England  —  presuppose  a  perfect 
uniformity,  in  the  exterior,  without  regard  to  the  size 
or  distribution  of  the  rooms  within.  Inigo  Jones  was 
one  of  the  most  skilful  of  designers,  as  his  less  preten- 
tious decorative  work  shows,  but  it  is  clear  that  he  was 
too  devoted  an  adherent  of  pseudo-classic  principles  to 
modify  a  great  classic  front  for  such  considerations  as 
differences  of  one  or  two  stories  within.  In  this  instance, 
as  clearly  as  in  any  other,  is  seen  the  willing  abandonment 
by  the  architects  of  the  seventeenth  century  of  all  natu- 
ralism of  design  and  a  hearty  adoption  of  the  theory  that 
architecture  was  an  art  that  could  be  mastered  only  by 
acquiring  and  mastering  settled  rules  of  proportion. 
Whatever  the  rooms  within  might  be,  size  or  shape  or 
purpose,  the  exterior  must  not  be  made  to  correspond 
with  them  further  than  that  the  designer  was  free  to 
choose  between  a  certain  number  of  formal  dispositions 
of  the  exterior  parts. 


4SO  WESTERN   EUROPE,   1520  TO    1665   A.D.  [Chap.  VIII 

At  the  same  time  with  the  Banqueting  House,  Jones 
built  in  London  the  row  of  houses  on  the  western  side  of 
Lincoln's  Inn  Fields :  a  long  front,  forming  one  single 
design  of  great  beauty  in  the  severe  style  adopted.  A 
single  order  of  pilasters  rests  upon  a  moderately  high 
basement,  and  between  the  pilasters  are  two  stories  of 
windows.  Of  the  style  followed  here  there  must  be  some 
account  given  in  the  next  section,  for  these  novelties  of 
the  "colossal  order  "and  its  concomitants  were  a  hundred 
years  old  in  Italy  when  they  first  appeared  in  England.  A 
design  simpler  in  being  without  the  large  order  of  pilasters, 
but  in  other  respects  as  formal  as  the  above-named  build- 
ings, is  the  south  front  of  Brympton  House,  Somersetshire. 
Ten  years  later,  about  1630,  Jones  built  the  very  beautiful 
Corinthian  portico  at  the  west  end  of  S.  Paul's  Cathedral; 
but  this  structure  is  known  to  us  only  by  means  of  prints 
of  the  time,  for  it  was  destroyed,  together  with  the  church, 
in  the  great  fire  of  1666.  York  Gate,  which  still  stands 
in  London  on  the  embankment  near  Charing  Cross  Sta- 
tion, is  all  that  remains  of  the  buildings  of  the  Duke  of 
Buckingham,  George  Villiers,  the  favourite  of  James  I. 
and  his  son  Charles.  This  lovely  portal  was  the  water- 
gate  of  York  House. 

V 

At  the  beginning  of  the  present  epoch,  the  work  of  the 
Italian  architects  was  still  very  much  diversified.  Some  of 
them  still  clung  to  the  traditions  of  the  Renaissance. 
Nearly  all  were  trying  to   reach   a  different    result,  that 


Sec.  V]  ITALY  45 1 

is  to  say,  the  nearest  approach  to  Roman  antiquity;  but 
each  was  working  along  his  own  lines  of  approach.  Thus 
at  Mantua  the  Palazzo  Te  was  undertaken  in  1525,  under 
the  direction  of  Giulio  Romano.  The  interior  details,  the 
columns,  pilasters,  entablatures,  and  vaulting  of  the  great 
vestibule,  or  "  atrium,"  are  excessively  clumsy  in  design ; 
too  short,  too  low,  too  heavy  for  a  palace  interior,  and 
the  Roman  order  is  abandoned  in  many  points ;  but  with 
this  is  united  an  extraordinary  richness  of  sculpture  and 
painted  ornament.  Above  the  necking  of  the  columns 
and  pilasters  almost  every  raised  or  prominent  part  of 
the  surface  is  covered  with  architectural  sculpture,  scrolls, 
wave-lines,  guilloches,  and  anthemions,  and  all  the  sunken 
panels  are  filled  with  painting.  In  the  walls  below  there 
are  statues  in  niches,  and  large  and  small  panels  filled 
with  figure  sculpture  in  relief.  It  would  not  be  strictly 
accurate  to  call  this  the  architecture  of  a  painter,  —  it  is 
rather  the  designing  of  a  man  without  a  delicate  sense 
for  form  and  for  proportion,  and  one  who  thought  that 
an  appearance  of  antique  massiveness  was  to  be  got  by 
being  clumsy,  and  that  clumsiness  could  be  redeemed  by 
decoration.  A  somewhat  similar  attempt  to  be  classical, 
without  any  shrewd  sense  of  what  was  fine  in  classical  art, 
is  to  be  found  in  the  garden-front  of  the  same  building. 
It  is  to  be  remembered,  however,  in  awarding  praise  and 
blame  to  buildings  which  are  accredited  to  a  single  archi- 
tect, as  becomes  the  custom  in  dealing  with  the  sixteenth 
and  following  centuries,  that  nothing  is  so  hard  to  be  cer- 
tain of  as  the  authorship  of  a  large  and  complex  architect- 
ural design.     It  is  as  difficult  in  the  nineteenth  century  as 


452  WESTERN  EUROPE,    1520  TO    1665   A.D.  [Chap.  VIII 

it  was  in  the  sixteenth  to  give  credit  for  a  design  to  any 
one  person.  The  general  sketch  is  made  by  the  master, 
and  the  details  are  worked  out  and  the  whole  design 
brought  into  shape,  perhaps,  by  his  pupils  and  assistants. 
But  no  admirer  is  able  to  learn  who  deserves  the  credit  for 
what  he  admires.  Was  the  force  of  the  design  in  the 
original  sketch,  or  was  this  as  much  of  a  hindrance  as  a 
help  to  those  who  completed  the  studies  ?  It  is  not  there- 
fore with  unhesitating  blame  that  we  can  lay  the  serious 
defects  of  this  very  inferior  work  of  the  later  Italian  Re- 
naissance to  the  charge  of  Giulio  Romano. 

A  few  miles  to  the  north,  Verona,  a  city  in  which 
architectural  art  has  always  been  marked  by  purity  and 
refinement,  buildings  of  extraordinary  dignity  were  erected 
during  the  years  15  30- 15 50,  this  rare  virtue  being  achieved 
by  the  simplest  means.  The  Palazzo  Pompei  has  a  front 
on  the  street  of  less  than  eighty  feet.  This  front  consists 
of  a  high  basement  very  plainly  rusticated  and  pierced 
with  round-arched  openings,  and  a  single  story  in  which 
round-headed  windows  are  alternated  with  the  columns  of 
a  Roman  Doric  order  rather  strictly  treated.  The  piers  at 
the  two  ends  are  larger  than  the  others,  and  in  the  upper 
story  these  are  fronted  with  a  column  and  a  square  pilaster 
of  equal  projection.  The  delicate  look  of  the  upper  story, 
with  its  rather  widely  spaced  slender  and  fluted  columns, 
is,  in  a  singular  way,  enhanced  by  the  shutting  in  of  this 
row  of  columns  between  the  square  and  solid  vertical 
masses  of  the  two  pilasters,  although  these  are  not  larger 
in  width  or  projection  in  any  part  than  the  width  of  the 
shafts  at  their  base.     Minute  touches  are  added  to   give 


Sec.  V]  ITALY  453 

lightness  above  and  ponderous  mass  below;  thus  the  sills 
of  the  basement  windows  are  of  the  full  thickness  of  a 
course  of  stone,  and  are  not  divided  into  mouldings  or 
horizontal  lines  in  any  way,  but  have  their  projection  sup- 
ported by  deep  corbels  cut  into  plain  ogee  curves,  as  if  an 
intention  to  make  consoles  of  them  had  been  abandoned. 
The  courses  of  stone  are  deeply  rusticated,  and  the  sur- 
face is  roughly  treated  with  the  pointing  chisel,  so  as  to 
leave  it  uniformly  vertical  but  still  full  of  irregularities, 
like  those  of  uncut  blocks.  This  type  of  palace  was  cre- 
ated, it  may  almost  be  said,  by  Bramante,  as  in  his  design 
for  Raphael's  house  on  the  Piazza  Rusticucci  at  Rome, 
now  destroyed.  It  is,  however,  preserved  and  developed 
by  Sammichele ;  for,  although  buildings  with  a  high  and 
massive  basement  and  a  single  richer  story  above  had 
been  built  in  Rome  and  elsewhere  (see  the  close  of  Chap- 
ter VII.  and  Fig.  201),  the  palaces  of  the  North  offer  many 
interesting  varieties  of  this  design,  and  Sammichele,  who 
died  in  1558,  is  the  great  master  of  the  style.  After  his 
death,  it  was  carried  on  in  the  Palazzo  Bevilacqua,  which 
was  built  from  his  designs.  This  is  a  building  far  more 
ornate,  and  with  the  front  pierced  with  much  larger  open- 
ings. The  windows  of  the  principal  story  are  alternately 
very  large  and  much  smaller,  and  the  columns  between 
them  are  brought  together  in  pairs,  with  a  small  window 
between  the  columns  of  each  pair;  the  basement  also  is 
broken  up  with  pilasters,  —  a  fatal  modification.  Much 
dignity  is  lost,  and  only  a  doubtful  advantage  gained  for 
external  architecture  by  this  development  of  the  style  in 
the  direction   of  greater  variety.     It  is  pleasant  to  note 


454  WESTERN  EUROPE,    1520  TO   1665  A.D.  [Chap.  VIII 

that,  forty  years  later,  the  simple  design  of  the  Palazzo 
Pompei  was  closely  followed,  and  on  a  much  larger  scale, 
in  the  splendid  building  which  is  set  against  the  ancient 
wall  of  Theodoric,  on  the  southwestern  side  of  the  Piazza 
Bra.  This  beautiful  building  is  now  a  corn  market.  It 
is  called  the  Gran'  Guardia  Antica,  and  is  ascribed  to  a 
little-known  architect,  Andrea  Milano.  The  design  differs 
from  that  of  the  Palazzo  Pompei  in  having  unfluted 
coupled  columns,  and  in  minor  details.  It  is  also  on  a 
much  larger  scale,  having  fifteen  bays  instead  of  seven  in 
its  fagade,  and  having  its  central  portion  crowned  by  a  low 
attic.  There  is  no  city  in  Italy  in  which  street  architect- 
ure has  been  more  successfully  treated  in  the  neo-classic 
style  than  Verona. 

In  Venice,  however,  the  refinement  of  Verona,  or  some- 
thing nearly  akin  to  it,  is  joined  to  a  splendour  and  rich- 
ness of  composition  unapproached  in  the  less  wealthy  and 
splendid  city.  The  Libreria  Vecchia  or  Old  Library  of  S. 
Mark  designed  by  Sansovino  was  begun  in  1536,  and  more 
than  half  of  the  front  on  the  Piazzetta  and  opposite  the 
Ducal  Palace  was  finished  by  him.  At  the  same  time  the 
Zecca  or  Mint,  immediately  behind  the  Library  and  front- 
ing on  the  sea,  was  built  by  the  same  architect.  The  Mint 
is  a  simple  and  workmanlike  building  with  an  exterior 
in  two  stories  above  the  basement,  each  story  treated 
by  itself.  The  basement  is  rusticated  and  pierced  with 
round  arches  like  the  basement  of  the  Roman  and  Vero- 
nese palaces  which  have  been  mentioned  above  (pp.  387, 
452,  and  453).  The  principal  story  is  then  in  the  Doric 
order  with  square  windows,  and  the  uppermost  story  in  the 


Sec.  V] 


ITALY 


455 


Ionic  order  with  square  windows  crowned  with  pediments. 
The  columns  and  pilasters  of  this  front  are  banded,  but  not 


Fig.  228.     Venice,  Italy :  Palace  Widman.     Detail  of  front.     Close  of  sixteenth  century. 

with    the    elaborateness    shown    in    the    buildings    of   the 
French  Renaissance  and  succeeding  styles.^      The  cornice 

1  For  this  banding,  see  Fig.  228,  a  part  of  the  palace  Widman,  in  Venice, 
probably  of  this  epoch. 


456  WESTERN   EUROPE,  1520  TO   1665   A.D.  [Chap.  VIII 

of  the  Ionic  order  is  carried  on  a  row  of  corbels,  which  is 
substituted  for  the  proper  frieze  of  the  order  so  that  this 
may  serve  for  the  wall-cornice.  It  is  hard  to  imagine  a 
more  satisfactory  building  for  civil  or  domestic  purposes 
in  a  style  where  variety  is  avoided  and  ornament  forbid- 
den. The  beauty  of  the  Renaissance  is  not  in  it,  but  a 
new  beauty  all  its  own  belongs  to  this  later  and  severer 
style.  The  interior  court  of  the  Zecca  has  its  walls 
pierced  with  much  larger  openings,  it  is  more  elaborate, 
and,  indeed,  the  principal  story  is  reduced  to  a  light 
Roman  order  with  slender  pilasters  substituted  for  the 
engaged  columns.  In  contrast  with  this  simple  building 
is  the  superb  Library  which  adjoins  it  (already  named),  a 
building  which  has  been  called  often  enough  the  finest 
thing  of  its  time.  Its  front  on  the  Piazzetta  (see  Plate 
IX.)  and  the  smaller  front  on  the  sea  consist  alike  of  a 
lower  Roman  order  with  Doric  columns  and  an  upper  one 
with  Ionic  columns,  and  nothing  else  except  a  parapet 
with  statues ;  but  every  part  is  treated  with  unusual  elab- 
oration. In  the  ground  story,  the  engaged  column  and 
its  two  adjoining  imposts  are  reduced  to  four  feet  four  in 
width,  on  the  fa9ade,  and  the  openings  between  these 
piers,  which  are  all  open  arches,  are  not  quite  twice  the 
width,  or  about  eight  feet  three.  There  is  therefore  not 
much  more  than  room  on  each  side  of  the  engaged  column 
for  the  moulded  archivolt  which  springs  from  the  impost, 
and  there  is  a  very  small  spandrel.  The  Doric  cornice 
is  unusually  large,  and  is  complete  with  its  triglyphs.  In 
the  story  above,  the  Ionic  columns  are  raised  upon  ped- 
estals, and  the  impost  upon  each  side   is   much   broader 


PLATE     IX.  LIBRERIA   VECCHIA,    OR    OLD   LIBRARY   OF    S.   MARK,    VENICE 

Part   of   front   on    the     Plazzetta,    Built    about    1536. 


Sec.  V]  ITALY  457 

than  below,  and  comprises  a  free  Ionic  column  under 
the  impost,  —  these  smaller  columns  being  also  raised  on 
pedestals  to  a  height  a  little  above  that  of  the  larger 
pedestals.  In  this  way  the  piers  of  the  upper  story  are 
made  very  much  wider  than  those  below,  wider  indeed 
than  the  windows  which  alternate  with  them;  and  the 
spandrels  are  large  in  proportion.  The  frieze  of  the 
Ionic  order  is  increased  to  a  width  of  more  than  three 
feet  clear,  and  the  decorated  mouldings  above  it  broaden 
it  still  more,  thus  making  of  the  entablature  a  very  suffi- 
cient crowning  feature.  So  far,  there  has  been  described 
a  building  of  elaborate  character,  and  one  embodying 
many  subtilties  of  design  in  the  smaller  Ionic  columns, 
which  have  their  shafts  fluted  and  reeded  to  contrast  with 
the  larger  columns  of  the  order,  and  which,  as  their  capi- 
tals are  set  much  lower  than  the  capitals  of  the  larger 
columns,  have  their  bases  properly  raised  higher  than 
the  larger  bases.  The  mouldings  are  all  extremely  sharp 
and  delicate.  The  proportions  are  of  extraordinary  refine- 
ment. All  this  beautiful  front  is  covered  thick  with  sculpt- 
ure arranged  and  combined  with  the  most  elaborate  care. 
The  smaller  spandrels  of  the  lower  arcade  are  filled  with 
nude  male  figures  in  high  relief;  the  Doric  frieze  above 
them  is  filled  with  flat  conventional  carving,  which  would 
be  dull  enough  in  another  place  but  serves  a  good  pur- 
pose here  as  a  foil.  The  larger  spandrels  above  are  filled 
with  draped  and  winged  female  figures,  the  plumes  and 
drapery  disposed  to  fill  much  of  the  space,  which,  more- 
over, is  in  part  concealed  by  the  elaborately  sculptured 
Ionic  capital,  whose  very  volutes   are   filled   with  foliage. 


458  WESTERN  EUROPE,   1520  TO   1665   A.D.  [Chap.  VIII 

The  keystones  of  both  arcades  are  sculptured,  —  Hon 
heads  and  human  heads  alternating.  The  broad  termi- 
nal frieze  contains  small  ventilation  openings  treated  like 
tablets,  and  included  in  a  composition  of  festoons,  fig- 
ures, heads,  and  scrolls,  which  crowd  every  part  of  the 
surface.  The  pedestals  of  the  parapet  carry  statues  of 
very  considerable  merit.  One  is  reminded  that  the 
author  of  this  unrivalled  front  was  a  sculptor  of  the 
highest  rank  in  his  day ;  a  man  whose  work,  though  ad- 
mittedly of  the  Decadence,  is  still  to  be  taken  very 
seriously  even  in  its  large  and  independent  pieces.  Not 
one  of  the  sculptures  which  he  placed  during  his  life- 
time in  connection  with  his  buildings,  —  the  giants  of 
the  Giant  Staircase,  the  S.  James  in  the  cathedral  of 
Florence,  the  statue  over  the  door  of  S.  Giuliano  in 
Venice,  the  bronze  doors  of  S.  Mark's,  —  not  one  but 
calls  for  the  study  and  admiration  of  later  times ;  and 
the  sculptured  enrichments  of  this  library  are  as  unique 
in  their  value  as  is  the  delicate  and  refined  architecture 
which  surrounds  them.  Conventional  architectural  carv- 
ing is  freely  used  to  set  off  this  expressional  sculpture. 
The  Doric  capitals  are  of  the  richest  design,  and  corre- 
spond to  the  elaborate  Ionic  columns  described  above. 
The  delicate  mouldings  of  the  archivolts  are  plain  be- 
low, but  are  enriched  in  the  upper  story.  The  tablets 
which  enclose  the  openings  in  the  great  frieze  are  worked 
in  the  same  way,  and  are  enlarged  by  foliated  scroll-work. 
The  offsets  in  the  architrave  above,  and  the  mouldings  of 
the  dentil  course  and  cornice,  and  the  mqdillions,  are  carved 
as  the  regulations  ordain,  but  with  unusual  delicacy. 


Sec.  V]  ITALY  459 

The  effect  of  elaborate  sculpture  upon  a  front  is  not 
sufficiently  weighed  by  modern  students.  Those  who 
have  the  opportunity  to  see  a  modern  Gothic  front  in 
England,  or  a  modern  classic  front  in  Paris,  before  and 
again  after  its  carving  has  been  executed,  should  note 
this  important  point.  The  mechanical  and  copied  sculpt- 
ure of  many  nineteenth-century  buildings  has  caused 
a  certain  reaction  in  some  quarters  in  favour  of  design 
which  shall  be  wholly  independent  of  carving.  This 
Venetian  front  of  1536  may  join  with  the  French  portals 
of  three  hundred  years  before  to  declare  that  a  building 
with  sculpture  belongs  to  a  different  and  better  class 
than  a  building  without  it. 

There  is  another  curious  consideration  which  this  front 
brings  up,  its  probable  superiority  to  anything  which  the 
imperial  Roman  world  had  seen.  It  is  difficult  to  believe 
that  any  design  made  by  an  architect  of  the  time  of 
Augustus  or  of  the  time  of  Hadrian  could  equal  this  one. 
It  must  be  remembered  that  the  free  and  perfect  appli- 
cation of  sculpture  to  architecture  is  of  the  Middle  Ages 
and  not  of  antiquity,  so  far  as  we  know.  In  this  sixteenth- 
century  work  we  have  a  piece  of  abstract  designing  prob- 
ably superior  in  refinement  to  anything  which  the  impe- 
rial architects  could  produce,  and  adorned  with  sculpture 
which  is  far  superior  to  that  which  we  know  as  having 
been  applied  to  the  exteriors  of  Roman  buildings,  which 
sculpture,  moreover,  is  applied  to  its  purpose  of  adornment 
with  a  sense  of  fitness  coming  of  the  great  traditions  of 
four  hundred  years. 

Venice  was  the  home  of  splendid  architecture   at  this 


460  WESTERN   EUROPE,   1520  TO   1665   A.D.  [Chap.  VIII 

time,  and  public  and  private  buildings  vie  with  one 
another  in  the  somewhat  artificial  and  self-conscious  ex- 
cellences of  a  highly  taught  school.  The  Logetta,  at 
the  foot  of  the  great  bell-tower  of  S.  Mark's,  is  by  the 
same  Jacopo  Sansovino  who  built  the  Library,  and  is  of 
1540.  The  huge  and  stately  Palazzo  Cornaro,  called 
Corner  della  Ca  Grande,  on  the  right  as  one  ascends  the 
great  canal ;  the  splendid  front  of  the  Scuola  di  S.  Rocco ; 
the  Palazzo  Malipiero-Trevisan  behind  S.  Maria  For- 
mosa; the  Palazzo  Corner-Mocenigo  at  San  Polo;  and 
most  important  of  all,  the  Palazzo  Grimani  at  San  Luca 
which  was  the  post-office  thirty  years  ago  and  is  now 
occupied  by  the  Court  of  Appeals,  —  a  building  with  one 
of  the  most  dignified  fronts  ever  imagined  by  a  neo-classic 
architect,  —  are  all  of  this  time.  The  front  of  the  Scuola  di 
S.  Rocco,  built  about  1536,  is  shown  in  Fig.  229.  It  is 
a  belated  piece  of  Renaissance  designing,  but  as  fine  as 
the  buildings  of  the  prime.  A  number  of  churches 
should  also  be  named,  such  as  S.  Giorgio  dei  Grechi, 
S.  Maria  Mater  Domini,  S.  Giuliano,  S.  Fantino;  and 
also  those  which  Palladio  designed,  such  as  S.  Giorgio 
Maggiore,  the  Redentore  on  the  Giudecca,  the  front  of 
S.  Pietro  in  Castello,  and  finally  S.  Francesco  della 
Vigna. 

For  Palladio,  however,  and  the  curious  influence 
which  he  exerted  on  the  architecture  of  the  century 
following  his  death,  especially  in  England,  one  must  go 
to  Vicenza,  where  the  arcaded  porticoes  of  the  so-called 
Basilica,  the  Palazzo  Chieregati,  the  Palazzo  Thiene,  and 
others,  embody  what  seems  to  have  been  his  theory,  that 


Fig.  229.     Venice,  Italy:  Scuola  di  S.  Rocoo.     Detail  of  front.     1536  a.d. 


462  WESTERN   EUROPE,   1520  TO    1665  A.D.  [Chap.  VIII 

architecture  is  an  abstract  thing  existing  independently 
of  excellence  or  poverty  of  material,  of  fitness  or  unfitness 
for  the  needs  of  the  building,  of  massiveness  or  slightness 
of  build,  of  great  or  diminutive  size.  It  is  impossible  not 
to  recognize  the  beauty  of  the  Palazzo  Thiene:  both  its 
exterior  (see  Fig.  230),  and  its  great  court  offer  to  the 
student  admirable  models  of  the  right  use  of  large  masses 
and  simple  details ;  but  its  architecture  is  a  mere  stucco 
casting  with  a  rough  brick  core,  and  nothing  but  the 
problem  of  laying  out  his  masses  has  concerned  the 
designer  at  all.  It  is  model-making,  not  architecture.  It 
is  scenic  designing,  as  when  temporary  triumphal  arches 
are  put  up  on  a  day  of  festivity,  and  not  architecture. 
The  fronts  of  churches  such  as  S.  Francesco  della  Vigna 
are  criticised  in  the  very  guide-books,  as  not  agreeing  with 
the  interior ;  but  this,  after  all,  is  a  small  fault,  as  the  chief 
lighting  of  the  interior  is  easily  provided,  and  the  building 
is  a  simple  hall  which  any  front  may  be  thought  to  suit : 
it  is  a  common  fault,  too,  and  all  Italy  joined  with 
Palladio  in  building  its  church-fronts  as  it  pleased.  The 
front  of  S.  Francesco  della  Vigna,  that  of  the  Redentore, 
and  that,  so  well  known,  of  S.  Giorgio  Maggiore,  seen  on 
its  island  across  the  broad  canal  of  Saint  Mark,  are  at 
least  of  solid  masonry,  and  the  pilasters,  with  their  capitals, 
are  cut  out  of  marble  or  Istrian  stone,  not  modelled  in 
stucco  on  a  brick  backing.  There  is  also  a  difficulty 
overcome,  and  a  serious  one,  in  fronting  these  nave-and- 
aisle  churches  which  are  to  have  but  one  central  door  and 
no  windows  at  all  in  the  front,  being,  indeed,  better  as  to 
interior  effect  without  light  from  the  front.     It  is  easy  to 


"mMaim 


lO 1 1    .1      .        -p= — 1  ^ — -^— ij 


rjjli 


m^^i 


"//.n\:j\\-\\\\lj  1/ 


464  WESTERN  EUROPE,  1520  TO   1665  A.D.  [Chap.  VIII 

ridicule  these  arbitrary  assemblages  of  pilasters  on  high 
pedestals  and  pilasters  on  a  low  stylobate,  as  in  S.  Giorgio 
Maggiore,  the  entablature  of  the  lower  order  being  cut 
right  through  in  four  places  by  the  higher  and  larger 
pilasters ;  but  it  is  a  logical  working  out  of  the  Roman 
theory,  and  can  be  defended.  The  varied  aspect  in  which 
a  church  presents  itself  to  the  eye,  the  flanks  as  important 
as  the  front,  and  the  chancel  end  even  more  worthy  of 
attention ;  the  interior,  moreover,  carrying  it  over  the  ex- 
terior always  and  everywhere,  and  open  to  all  comers, — 
all  this  prevented  the  Palladian  doctrine  of  repression 
and  ascetic  self-denial  in  architecture  from  being  too 
harmful  in  church  building.  It  is  the  matter  of  domestic 
and  civic  buildings,  where  every  amateur  found  all  the 
supposed  needed  rules  plainly  laid  down  and  easy  of  com- 
prehension, and  architecture  was  made  a  plaything,  a 
mere  matter  of  setting  out  fronts  as  children  put  together 
dissected  maps,  —  it  is  in  this  that  the  Palladian  school 
worked  its  mischief,  more  in  the  North  than  in  Italy. 
The  celebrated  Villa  Rotonda  near  Vicenza  (Fig.  230  A) 
is  an  instance  of  the  simple  Palladian  recipe  applied  to 
domestic  buildings.  In  such  designing  as  this,  a  delicate 
sense  of  proportion  is  all  that  is  needed :  there  is  nothing 
to  deter  the  amateur  from  trying  his  hand  at  it,  —  neither 
the  diflliculties  of  construction  nor  the  needed  mastery  of 
sculpture,  nor  even  the  labour  of  planning  skilfully.  This 
is  Palladianism.  In  Italy  it  was  restrained  by  the  exam- 
ple of  the  richer  schools  contemporary  with  it :  Palladio 
could  not  rule  supreme  when  Sansovino,  Scamozzi,  Sam- 
michele,  and  Scarpagnino  were  at  work  in  the  North,  his 


2H 


466 


WESTERN   EUROPE,    1520  TO   1665   A.D 


[Chap.  VIII 


rivals  in  every  city,  and  when  Ammanati  was  building  in 
Florence,  and  Michelangelo  carrying  up  the  drum  of  S. 
Peter's  cupola.  In  the  North,  however,  that  orderly  and 
systematic  code  of  rules  of  Palladio's,  neatly  booked,  and 
offering  to  every  one  the  simplest  grammar  and  accidence 

of  architecture,  is  respon- 
sible for  much  contented 
tameness  in  later  design. 
It  must  be  remembered 
that  the  precept  and  prac- 
tice of  Italy  in  1560  are 
to  be  found  in  the  North 
in  1660  and  later,  rather 
than  at  any  earlier  time, 
and  that  Palladio  was  not 
much  heeded  in  England 
nor  Vignola  in  Germany 
until  our  latest  epoch, 
beginning  1665. 

The      church      of      S. 
Peter    at     Rome,     as     it 
was  conceived  in  the  mid- 
_     ,    ,  ^  ^         ^        die  of  the  sixteenth  cen- 

FlG.  231.     Rome:  Church  of  S.  Peter.      Par- 
tial plan,  as  it  was  left  by  Michelangelo.       tury,    WaS    a    Greek    CrOSS, 

'564A.D.  ^i^j^     ^YiQ     four     angles 

filled   with   domical    chapels.^     All   four   of   the   arms  of 


5-0 


/oo 


300 


^  The  church  of  S.  Peter  on  the  Vatican  has  always,  since  its  foundation 
under  Constantine  the  Great  and  in  all  its  forms,  had  its  chancel  turned  a  little 
to  the  north  of  west,  and  its  entrance  fronts  therefore  the  eastern  and  not  the 
western  end. 


Sec.  V] 


ITALY 


467 


the  cross  were  to  be  terminated  by  apses,  but  the 
eastern  one,  which  was  to  be  pierced  by  the  chief  doors 
of  entrance,  was  to  be  reinforced  on  either  side  by 
aisles  forming  side  entrances,  and  to  be  extended  further 


/o  o 
LlJ- 


'    '    ' 


T 


Fig.  232.     Rome:  Church  of  S.  Peter.     Part  of  north  front  corresponding  with  Fig.  231. 

1535.     Dome,  1590  A.D. 


468  WESTERN   EUROPE,    1520  TO    1665   A.D.  [Chap.  VIII 

east  by  a  considerable  portico.  Figure  231  gives  the  plan 
of  the  western  half  of  this  remarkable  conception,  and 
Fig.  232  a  view  of  it  from  the  north.  This  view  shows 
the  design  very  nearly  as  it  must  have  been  in  the  mind 
of  Michelangelo  Buonarroti  about  1550,  that  is  to  say,  a 
year  or  more  after  he  had  taken  charge  of  the  work. 
During  his  lifetime  the  building  was.  carried  up  to  the  top 
of  the  drum  beneath  the  rounding  shell  of  the  cupola,  and 
the  cupola  was  built  long  afterwards  from  drawings  and 
an  elaborate  model  which  had  been  prepared  during 
Buonarroti's  administration.  The  cupola  itself  is  double, 
entirely  of  masonry,  the  outer  shell  a  little  more  raised, 
the  inner  one  a  little  flatter.  The  stone  lantern  rests 
partly  on  the  inner,  partly  on  the  outer  shell.  The  cupola 
has  almost  exactly  the  same  diameter  as  that  of  the  cathe- 
dral of  Florence,  somewhat  less  than  140  feet,  but  it  rests 
upon  pendentives  and  not  upon  a  continuous  wall,  and  is 
so  far  a  greater  undertaking.  These  pendentives  are  not, 
however,  very  bold,  except  from  their  great  dimensions; 
the  piers  which  support  them  are  extremely  massive,  and 
there  is  nothing  daring  in  the  construction  except  its  un- 
precedented scale  and  the  great  height  to  which  the  dome 
is  carried,  with  the  consequent  pressure  upon  the  structure. 
The  cupola  in  itself  is  beautiful,  both  within  and  without. 
When  seen  from  the  east,  as  visitors  to  Rome  generally 
'  see  it,  it  is  lost  behind  the  nave  built  by  Carlo  Maderno. 
When  seen  from  the  north,  west,  or  south,  it  loses  some- 
thing of  its  effect  in  not  having  its  form  repeated  in  the 
cupolas  which  should  have  been  built  over  the  western 
corner  chapels ;  those  of  the  eastern  corners  are  in  place. 


Sec.  V]  ITALY  469 

The  vault  of  the  choir  within  and  of  its  apse,  and  also 
the  cupolas  of  the  four  corner  chapels,  spring  from  a  line 
nearly  corresponding  to  and  a  little  below  the  top  of  the 
large  entablature  which  rests  upon  the  Corinthian  pilas- 
ters (see  Fig.  232).  The  attic  wall,  pierced  with  square 
windows  and  carrying  the  tiled  roof,  corresponds,  therefore, 
very  closely  in  height  with  the  vault  itself.  The  roof  is 
close  down  upon  the  vault,  and  bears  immediately  upon  it. 
The  square  windows  in  the  attic  wall  light  the  interior 
through  lunettes,  the  larger  windows  below  light  the 
church  directly,  and  the  much  smaller  windows  are  those 
of  staircases  and  the  like.  Beneath  the  large  windows  are 
great  niches  in  the  outer  wall,  which  are  treated  architect- 
urally like  the  windows.  All  this  part  of  the  church  is 
simple,  logical,  carefully  thought  out  in  design ;  it  has  no 
unusual  or  unexpected  charm  except  in  the  great  cupola 
itself;  the  fascination  of  the  Renaissance  is  not  in  it.  The 
colossal  order  of  the  lower  walls  is  too  gigantic,  it  is  hard 
not  to  feel  that  the  pilasters  are  great  towers  in  them- 
selves, and  are  out  of  scale  as  mere  adornments  of  a  build- 
ing which  men  are  to  occupy.  The  exterior,  moreover,  is 
cold  and  bare.  Such  decoration  by  means  of  sculpture  as 
we  have  found  at  the  Old  Library  at  Venice  might  indeed 
have  been  impracticable  in  the  case  of  so  vast  a  building; 
but  the  building  needs  something  like  it,  and  the  money 
spent  on  the  three  great  bays  of  the  nave  and  the  gigantic 
narthex  and  principal  front,  which  are  worse  than  useless 
to  the  church,  would  have  given  it  the  diversified  splendour 
which  only  sculpture  could  give.  As  it  is,  however,  the 
church    as  conceived  by   Buonarroti    and   his   immediate 


470  WESTERN   EUROPE,    1520  TO  1665   A.D.  [Chap.  VIII 

forerunner  and  his  immediate  successor,  —  Antonio  da  San 
Gallo  and  Vignola,  —  is  a  noble  structure,  not  depending 
on  its  enormous  size  more  than  is  reasonable,  and  de- 
signed in  accordance  with  its  enormous  size  except  as  has 
been  said  above  in  the  matter  of  the  exterior  order.  The 
later  decoration  of  the  interior  is  in  part  out  of  harmony 
with  the  design.  On  the  other  hand  Buonarroti's  pro- 
posed portico,  imitated  from  the  Pantheon,  would  have 
been  even  more  unfortunate. 

The  cities  of  Italy  are  full  of  great  palazzi  or  houses 
of  wealthy  nobles  which  were  built  during  the  sixteenth 
and  seventeenth  centuries.  The  Farnese  palace  is  the 
most  famous  of  those  in  Rome:  it  was  completed  by 
Michelangelo  Buonarroti,  and  its  court  is  an  elaborate 
piece  of  designing  with  Roman  orders  one  upon  another. 
The  most  striking  of  all  these  residences  are  in  Genoa, 
where  the  effect  of  vestibule,  staircase,  court,  passages 
leading  to  other  courts,  and  the  like,  and  also  the  state- 
liness  of  villas,  on  hillsides  covered  with  ornamental 
gardens  and  terraced  buildings,  have  been  carried  to 
perfection  in  a  certain  artificial  way.  The  villa  Andrea 
Doria  is  of  about  1529,  and  its  interior  is  of  peculiar 
interest.  The  villa  Cambiaso  in  the  suburb  of  San  Fran- 
cesco d'Albaro  is  a  splendid  piece  of  exterior  effect  in 
gardens  and  garden  architecture.  The  Palazzo  Sauli, 
the  Palazzo  Carega,  the  Palazzo  Doria-Tursi,  now  occu- 
pied by  the  Municipality,  are  all  of  the  years  between 
1560  and  1570.  So  many  and  so  large  buildings  had 
been  built,  that  after  1570  most  of  the  energy  of  the 
great   families   was   given    to   the  building   of   additional 


Sec.  V]  ITALY  47 1 

wings  and  courts,  but  the  interesting  Palazzo  Durazzo 
in  the  Via  Balbi  is  of  1656,  and  there  are  still  later 
buildings  of  the  kind  as  spacious  and  splendid,  but 
impure    in    style. 

Nowhere  in  the  south  of  Italy  was  there  as  energetic 
a  movement  in  building  as  in  Genoa.  In  the  Roman 
states,  as  in  Venetia,  the  tendency  was  toward  severe  uni- 
formity and  an  unbending  system. 

In  1556  the  country  palace  at  Caprarola  near  Viterbo 
was  begun  by  Jacopo  Barozzi,  called  Vignola.  In  plan 
and  disposition  it  is  a  French  chateau  of  the  Renaissance, 
arranged  as  it  is  around  five  sides  of  a  court  and  enclosed 
in  a  pentagonal  fortified  wall  with  bastions.  The  exterior, 
however,  shows  the  tendency  of  the  time  toward  formality 
and  the  reduction  of  all  decorative  architecture  to  the 
use  of  the  orders,  of  which  tendency,  indeed,  Vignola  is 
one  of  the  two  great  representatives.  His  treatises  on 
architecture,  dating  from  the  years  1 563-1 580,  have  had  as 
much  weight  on  the  continent  of  Europe  as  Palladio's 
books  have  had  in  England ;  and,  indeed,  he  is  considered 
the  embodiment  of  the  academic  style.  The  three 
churches  named  above  as  built  in  Venice  by  Palladio 
exemplify  the  strong  tendency  of  the  time  toward  this 
chilling  uniformity.  The  use  of  the  colossal  order  is 
only  one  part  of  this  tendency. 

The  neo-classic  art,  as  understood  by  Palladio  and  Vi- 
gnola, was  by  no  means  a  victor  without  contest.  At  Rome 
the  Palazzo  del  Conservatori  on  the  Capitol,  begun  in 
1560,  is  picturesque  in  treatment  in  spite  of  severe  classi- 
cal details  (see  Fig.  233).     In  Florence  the  court  of  the 


472 


WESTERN   EUROPE,    1520  TO    1665   A.D 


[Chap.  VIII 


Pitti  Palace  is  almost  a  work  of  the  Renaissance  in  vari- 
ety and  elaboration;   it  was  built  by  Ammanati  between 


Fig.  233.     Rome :  Palazzo  dei  Conservatori.     Qosing  years  of  the  sixteenth  century. 


^  1570  and  1575.  In  Florence  the  bridge  S.  Trinita,  and 
in  Venice  the  bridge  of  the  Rialto,  have  almost  a  mediae- 
val feeling  in  their  design,  and  the  Bridge  of  Sighs  shows 


Sec.  V]  ITALY  473 

somewhat  of  the  same  feeling,  though  as  late  as  1600. 
At  Verona  the  noble  Palazzo  del  Gran'  Guardia,  described 
above  (see  p.  454),  is  of  16 10.  Still,  however,  everything 
tended  toward  formality  and  the  treatment  of  architect- 
ure as  if  its  practice  consisted  of  a  series  of  academic 
propositions.  The  great  colonnades  of  S.  Pietro  at  Rome 
belong  to  the  next  epoch  rather  than  to  this,  but  the 
design  of  these  must  have  been  made  as  early  as  1665, 
and  their  architect  Bernini  would  have  begun  them  earlier 
but  for  his  visit  to  Paris. 


CHAPTER   IX 

THE  ARCHITECTURE  OF  WESTERN  EUROPE  ABOUT  1665 
TO  lySg  A.D.  Third  Period  of  Neo-Classic  Art.  The  Northern 
Nations  and  Spain  generally  follow  the  Examples  furnished  by 
Italy  during  the  Previous  Period  (1520-1665)  and  National 
Styles  tend  to  disappear  in  Uniformity,  but  many  Local  and 
Temporary  Counter  Influences  arise.  Italy  produces  Little  of 
Importance  and  originates  Nothing. 

PREFATORY     NOTE 

During  the  years  from  about  1 541,  when  Pierre  Lescot's 
designs  for  the  Louvre  were  put  in  hand,  to  1665,  when 
our  present  record  begins,  the  practice  of  architecture 
throughout  the  north  of  Europe  had  been  undergoing  a 
great  change.  This  change  was  in  the  substitution  of 
drawings  to  be  closely  followed,  even  in  minute  details,  for 
drawings  of  general  effect  used  under  the  direction  of  the 
maker  of  them,  but  allowing  of  large  liberty  in  the  execu- 
tion of  the  work.  For  the  workman  this  meant  substitu- 
tion of  precise  accuracy  in  following  drawings  for  the  free 
practice  of  a  traditional  art  within  certain  limits  set  by 
drawings.  The  latter,  the  mediaeval  way  of  proceeding, 
was  not  compatible  with  the  attempted  introduction  of 
wholly  new  details  nor  with  the  strife  among  the  architects 
as  to  who  should  follow  most  exactly  the  example  set  by 

474 


PREFATORY   NOTE  475 

the  ancient  Roman  builders.  It  is  evident  to  all  students 
of  the  buildings  that  Chambord  might  have  been  built  as 
the  neighbouring  cathedral  of  Bourges  had  been  built,  when 
once  the  stonecutters  had  been  shown  what  a  pilaster  was, 
and  how  Roman  mouldings  differed  from  Gothic  ones. 
On  the  other  hand,  the  court  of  the  Louvre,  the  front  of 
the  Tuileries,  the  contrasting  fa9ades  of  Ecouen,  with  their 
carefully  studied  orders,  required  the  exact  laying  out  on 
paper  by  the  architect  of  details  as  well  as  of  general 
masses. 

It  is  probable  that  no  change  so  abrupt  as  this  took 
place  in  Italy.  In  that  region  the  artist-director  had  been 
for  centuries  a  much  more  marked  individuality  than  in 
the  North.  Individual  artistic  ability  had  long  been  more 
remarkable  and  more  in  repute.  The  painter  of  panel-pict- 
ures and  of  miniatures  in  manuscripts,  the  chaser  of  sword- 
hilts,  and  the  designer  of  stained  glass  was  much  more  of 
a  celebrity  in  the  south  than  in  the  north  of  Europe.  Men 
of  the  simplest  lives  working  in  their  shops  or  in  the  man- 
sions of  great  nobles  for  slender  pay  were  still  known 
throughout  the  Peninsula  as  men  set  aside  from  the  crowd 
by  the  possession  of  trained  artistic  faculty.  The  very  fre- 
quency of  the  familiar  nickname  or  abbreviated  Christian 
name  for  the  patronymic  shows  how  common  this  kind  of 
celebrity  must  have  been.  Moreover,  in  Italy  the  Gothic 
architecture  and  decoration,  though  prevailing  for  two  cen- 
turies, was  never  the  natural  growth  of  the  Italian  spirit,  as 
the  Italian  painting  and  sculpture  was.  Always  when  a 
Gothic  building  was  taken  in  hand  in  Italy,  the  superin- 
tending architect  came  more  to  the  front ;  more  was  put 


476  WESTERN   EUROPE,   1665   TO   1789   A.D.  [Chap.  IX 

upon  him,  more  was  expected  of  him,  than  in  the  North. 
The  line,  too,  between  the  mason  and  the  sculptor  was 
much  more  sharply  drawn  in  Italy.  The  simple  building, 
the  rough,  unbroken  brick  walls,  the  unorganized  structure, 
could  be  brought  into  existence  by  workmen  of  but  little 
skill,  while  the  sculptor  was  carving  the  setting  of  the  sin- 
gle doorway.  But  in  the  North  the  workmen  on  a  Gothic 
church  worked  together  in  a  traditional  way  very  hard  for 
us  now  to  understand ;  and  the  traditions,  the  familiarity 
with  certain  forms,  the  habit  of  combining  details  in  certain 
ways,  the  knowledge  of  how  decorative  effect  was  to  be  got 
under  certain  conditions,  —  all  this  was  matter  of  common 
knowledge  among  a  large  body  of  workmen,  and  descended 
from  father  to  son  and  from  master  to  apprentice.  The 
difference  is  mainly  that  this  traditional  way  of  work  was 
confined  in  Italy  to  a  smaller  and  more  select  class,  while 
in  the  North  it  was  more  common,  more  widely  diffused, 
and  brought  no  such  individual  repute  to  its  possessors. 
In  Italy  modern  times  for  art  began  in  the  twelfth  century, 
in  the  North  not  till  the  sixteenth. 


I 


Giovanni  Lorenzo  Bernini,  born  in  1599,  had  risen  to 
great  celebrity  in  Italy.  At  the  age  of  thirty  he  had 
been  put  in  charge  of  the  never-ending  work  on  S.  Peter's 
Church  at  Rome;  and  he  had  built  additions  to  the  Vati- 
can Palace,  besides  planning  that  great  Place  of  S.  Peter. 
In  1665  he  came  to  Paris,  invited  by  Louis  XIV.,  at  the 
suggestion  of  Colbert,  who  became  Director  of  Fine  Arts 


Sec.  I]  FRANCE  477 

the  following  year,  centralizing  art  as  everything  else  in 
the  State  was  to  be  centralized  during  this  reign.  Levau 
was  employed  already  upon  the  Tuileries,  where  he  was 
destroying  the  work  of  Philibert  de  I'Orme,  that  tri- 
umph of  the  Renaissance ;  and  Claude  Perrault,  who  was 
not  an  architect  by  profession,  had  made  a  design  for 
the  east  front  of  the  Louvre ;  Charles  Le  Brun  was  the 
king's  adviser  in  everything  that  had  to  do  with  fine  art. 
Bernini  had  sent  in  advance  a  design  for  the  eastern  front 
of  the  Louvre  facing  the  church  of  S.  Germain  I'Auxer- 
rois,  and,  on  his  arrival,  began  to  propose  radical  changes 
in  the  Louvre  involving  gigantic  buildings  and  com- 
pletely overthrowing  the  traditional  form  of  the  old  cha- 
teau begun  one  hundred  and  forty  years  before.  His 
designs  admitted  of  no  possible  modification,  for  it  ap- 
pears that  the  old  man,  full  of  his  Italian  fame,  expected 
the  princes  of  the  barbarians  to  accept  his  proposals  with- 
out question.  The  king  tried  to  persuade  him  to  remain 
in  France,  in  spite  of  the  rejection  of  his  designs  for  the 
Louvre,  but  he  returned  to  Italy  after  a  few  months,  and 
nothing  of  his  was  left  in  France  but  the  bust  of  King 
Louis. 

The  east  front  of  the  Louvre  was  then  undertaken 
according  to  Perrault's  design,  and  as  it  now  exists.  A 
basement,  which  is  pierced  by  windows  of  a  most  feeble 
design,  and  which  is  neither  massive  in  the  style  of  the 
Roman  and  Veronese  palazzi  (see  p.  452),  nor  yet  open 
and  light  as  in  the  library  of  S.  Mark  (see  p.  456),  car- 
ries a  portico  of  coupled  Corinthian  columns.  At  each 
end   of   the  fa9ade   a  pavilion   is  placed  with  very  slight 


4/8  WESTERN  EUROPE,  1665  TO    1789  A.D.  [Chap.  IX 

projection  and  no  greater  height,  but  with  solid  walls 
and  pilasters  instead  of  the  open  colonnade ;  and  these 
pavilions  are  given  a  surprising  importance  and  dignity 
by  being  divided  each  into  two  masses  with  a  large  open 
niche  or  bay  between  with  a  pair  of  columns  ifi  antis;  so 
that  the  open  portico  seems  repeated  in  these,  and  the 
length  of  the  front  is  greatly  extended  in  effect.  A  cen- 
tral pavilion  of  very  different  character  is  made  up  by 
carrying  the  arch  of  a  great  doorway  far  above  the  top 
of  the  basement,  and  by  advancing  four  couples  of  the 
great  columns  to  carry  a  Roman  pediment  above  this 
principal  entrance.  It  may  be  said  that  the  whole  upper 
story,  containing  two  actual  stories  of  the  building,  is 
fine  and  dignified  in  design.  The  larger  and  the  smaller 
windows  in  the  pavilions  are  well  placed  and  good  in 
themselves.  The  pediment  is  well  proportioned  and  in 
harmony  with  the  substructure,  which  makes  of  that  pro- 
jecting part  of  the  colonnade  a  vast  porch  of  entrance  ; 
the  colonnade  is  excellent  in  itself  and  in  its  relation  to 
the  end  pavilions  and  the  central  porch.  It  is  a  curious 
instance  of  the  growing  estrangement  between  architect- 
ural design  and  the  industrial  art  of  planning  and  build- 
inor  that  the  halls  behind  the  colonnade  have  no  win- 
dows  opening  upon  it,  as  it  was  found  impossible  to 
make  them  correspond  with  those  of  the  courtyard  front. 
Moreover,  the  colonnade  with  its  pavilions  was  deliber- 
ately made  a  good  deal  longer  than  the  building  behind 
it,  so  that  the  pavilions  projected  in  awkward  blocks  of 
building  beyond  the  north  and  south  fa9ades;  but  on 
the  south,  new   work,  directed    by    Perrault,   greatly   in- 


Sec.  I]  FRANCE  479 

creased  the  depth  of  the  building  in  that  part  and 
caused  that  fault  to  disappear,  so  that  it  may  be  sup- 
posed that  a  similar  treatment  was  intended  for  the 
northern  front,  though  of  this  there  is  no  record.  In 
1670  that  new  work  by  Perrault  was  begun.  The  open 
portico  was  not  repeated,  but  an  order  of  pilasters  as 
high  as  the  columns  of  that  portico  was  carried  along 
the  whole  south  front,  and  is  a  good  companion  to  the 
eastern  fa9ade.  It  is  not  surprising  that  the  building 
served  as  an  example  for  the  architects  of  the  century 
that  was  to  follow.  The  "  colossal  order "  of  columns 
and  pilasters,  so  high  as  to  take  in  several  stories  of 
the  building,  though  without  example  in  antiquity,  was 
thought  eminently  fit  to  serve  the  turn  of  would-be 
designers  of  stately  buildings.  The  next  step  to  take 
was  to  set  the  columns  and  pilasters  of  this  colossal 
order  upon  the  lowest  stylobate  of  the  building  immedi- 
ately above  the  ground,  and  thus  to  make  the  order  as 
high  as  the  building;  and  this  step  was  soon  to  be 
taken. 

In  the  meantime,  the  chateau  of  Versailles  was  growing 
far  beyond  the  limits  first  set  to  it,  as  of  a  hunting  seat  or 
a  country  chateau,  one  of  many  belonging  to  the  Crown ; 
and  in  1670  Jules  Hardouin  Mansart  succeeded  Levau, 
and  the  vast  garden-front  was  begun  in  earnest.  It  is 
frequently  said  that  the  determination  of  the  king  not  to 
exceed  in  height  the  old  hunting  lodge  of  his  father,  and 
the  consequent  limitation  of  the  height  of  the  building 
to  a  basement,  a  principal  story,  and  an  attic,  causes  cer- 
tain   inferiority  in    the   front,    its  vast   length  —  nearly  a 


480  WESTERN   EUROPE,  1665  TO    1789  A.D.  [Chap.  IX 

quarter  of  a  mile  —  contrasting  strangely  with  a  height 
of  not  more  than  sixty  feet.  This,  however,  is  a  peculi- 
arity to  be  stated,  and  not  necessarily  blamed.  There  is 
a  certain  magnificence  in  the  uniform  and  not  excessive 
height  reigning  throughout  in  so  great  a  building,  and  it 
is  by  no  means  certain  that  the  raising  of  pavilions  to  the 
height  of  another  story  would  improve  it.  It  must  not 
be  forgotten  that  this  garden-front  is  by  no  means  in  one 
plane.  The  central  block  projects  on  the  terrace  beyond 
the  long  wings  of  the  palace  by  actually  one-fifth  of  the 
whole  immense  length,  and  the  wings  again  have  smaller 
but  still  very  considerable  breaks  on  either  side,  so  that 
the  ordinary  view  of  the  garden-front  on  this  side  is  very 
far  from  being  monotonous,  and  it  is  only  by  looking  at 
the  building  along  its  principal  axis,  and  from  a  very  great 
distance,  that  the  fa9ade  can  in  any  way  seem  flat.  It  is 
on  record  that  Louis  XIV.  proposed  to  crown  his  great 
structure  with  a  series  of  high  roofs,  but  that  the  burden- 
some wars  of  the  years  following  1688  prevented  this  plan 
from  being  carried  out.  The  fault  really  to  be  found  with 
the  garden-front  is,  strangely  enough,  its  lack  of  massive 
dignity.  It  has  too  many  windows,  too  large  and  too  near 
together;  the  arches  of  the  openings  are  not  loaded  by 
enough  superincumbent  wall ;  the  porticoes  with  free 
columns,  of  which  there  are  several  in  the  principal 
story,  have  not  projection  nor  shadow  enough.  The 
whole  front  seems  to  one  who  walks  along  the  terrace 
too  thin  in  its  walls,  too  slight  in  its  piers,  too  feeble 
in  its  arches,  while  from  a  distance  the  glitter  of  its 
innumerable  windows    turns   it  into    a    lantern,  and   one 


Sec.  I]  FRANCE  48 1 

remembers  with  dreadful  comparisons  the  statelier  build- 
ings of  Italy. 

One  important  and  semi-detached  part  of  the  chateau 
deserves,  however,  much  more  praise  than  has  been 
given  it,  —  the  chapel,  the  design  of  which  dates  from 
the  very  latest  years  of  the  century.  This  is  a  noble 
building,  and  would  alone  immortalize  Mansart.  It  is  one 
of  the  finest  things  which  Europe  owes  to  the  completed 
classical  revival,  and  is  assuredly  the  most  important 
church  of  moderate  size  which  was  built  between  1650 
and  the  great  French  Revolution.  Other  churches  will 
be  named  which  are  superior  in  many  ways,  but  this  one 
is  of  consistent  design  inside  and  out.  It  is  construc- 
tional, and  its  rich  and  florid  ornament  is  well  kept  in 
hand  and  well  combined  for  the  best  effect,  both  within 
and  without.  It  is  then  superior  to  S.  Roch  of  Paris  in 
consistency  of  design  and  to  S.  Genevieve  of  Paris  in  deco- 
rative effect,  to  the  English  churches  of  the  epoch  in 
richness  and  in  the  absence  of  wooden  imitations  of  vault- 
ing and  the  like,  and  to  the  German  churches  and  the 
Italian  churches  generally  in  good  taste.  The  Versailles 
chapel  has  a  nave  and  aisles  and  a  rounded  chevet  at  the 
eastern  end,  clear-story  windows  and  aisle  windows  com- 
plete, buttresses,  too,  and  gargoyles  to  throw  off  the  roof 
water.  It  has,  moreover,  that  relative  height  which  the 
same  system  of  building  led  to  in  the  Middle  Ages.  The 
whole  of  this  mediaeval  framework  is  dressed  in  the  most 
completely  worked  out  late-Roman  neo-classic,  without 
any  renaissance  feeling;  and  yet  it  is  not  at  all  incon- 
gruous.    Interior  and  exterior,  requirements  of  plan  and 


482  WESTERN  EUROPE,  1665  TO   1789  A.D.  [Chap.  IX 

resulting  design,  all  comport  most  thoroughly  with  one 
another.  It  was  quite  understood  that  the  king  would 
seldom  visit  the  lowest  floor,  and  so  the  aisles  took  the 
unusual  form  of  an  upper  gallery  of  greater  height,  and  a 
much  less  lofty  basement.  The  nave  pillars,  therefore,  are 
square  below,  carrying  round  arches,  and  free  Corinthian 
columns  above,  with  square  pilasters  at  the  angles,  carry- 
ing an  entablature.  From  this  entablature  springs  the 
vaulting  of  the  roof,  the  lunettes  of  which  are  filled  by  the 
clear-story  windows.  Figure  234  gives  the  general  effect 
of  this  fine  interior.  Outside  the  lower  story  is  marked 
by  a  basement  with  segmental-headed  windows,  borrowed 
from  the  basement  of  the  Louvre  colonnade ;  but  these 
'are  divided  by  flat  pilasters,  and  the  very  massive  but- 
tresses break  up  this  basement,  and  give  solidity  enough. 
The  principal  gallery,  which  forms  the  upper  story  of  the 
aisles,  and  which  received  the  king  and  his  courtiers,  is 
marked  by  very  high  arched  windows,  divided  by  the  pil- 
asters of  a  fine  Corinthian  order.  Gargoyles  for  the  roof- 
water,  one  over  each  window,  break  the  architrave.  Very 
heavy  buttresses  at  the  rounded  eastern  end  are  decorated 
with  corner  pilasters  of  the  same  order.  Above  this  story 
a  parapet  with  large  pedestals,  each  of  which  carries  one 
or  two  statues  of  heroic  size,  is  employed  to  screen  the 
flat  roof  of  the  aisle,  and  the  clear-story  is  treated  like  an 
attic  with  a  steep  roof.  There  is  a  good  deal  of  well- 
placed  sculpture  about  the  building,  and  the  statues  are 
of  considerable  merit,  in  the  taste  of  the  Regency. 

This  chapel,  and  the  Louvre  colonnade,  are    the   best 
possible  types  of  the  rich    architecture    of   the    time,  the 


Fig.  234-     Versailles,  France :  Royal  chateau.     Interior  of  chapel.     1710A.D. 


484  WESTERN  EUROPE,  1665  TO    1789   A.D.  [Chap.  IX 

architecture  in  which  no  cost  is  spared.^  The  simple 
design  of  the  time  is  well  seen  in  the  great  front  of  the 
Hotel  des  Invalides  in  Paris,  built  about  1670  by  Liberal 
Bruand.  The  fault  inherent  in  the  developed  late  Italian, 
Palladian,  Roman,  or  neo-classic  style  is  seen  in  this  fact, 
—  that  except  the  classical  orders  with  pediments,  parapets, 
attics,  and  pedestals,  no  architectural  ornamentation  is 
in  use.  Where  a  building  or  a  fa9ade  can  be  treated  at 
considerable  expense,  there  is  no  difficulty  in  making  it 
attractive  by  means  of  colonnades,  rows  of  pilasters,  and 
the  like,  and  the  experience  of  three  hundred  years 
shows  that  no  other  architectural  adornment  is  as  gener- 
ally popular  among  European  peoples  as  are  these 
classic  or  pseudo-classic  details.  But  when  for  any  reason 
these  orders  and  their  accessories  cannot  be  used,  and 
when  the  nature  of  the  building  forbids  that  insistence 
upon  its  structural  system  which  we  have  found  in 
the  Versailles  chapel,  there  is  nothing  left  but  the  spac- 
ing of  windows  and  doors,  and  the  arrangement  of  the 
larger  masses  of  the  building.  There  are  none  of  the 
charming  devices  of  the  Renaissance,  the  panelled  and 
sculptured  pilasters,  the  window-framings  and  the  door- 
pieces  of  unexpected  and  startling  design,  the  dormer- 
windows  which  break  the  cornice  and  carry  the  wall  up 
into  the  roof  and  into  the  sky,  the  bold  string-courses 
and  double  string-courses,  the  columns  with  sculptured 
shafts,  and  the  candelabra  doing  duty  for  columns.  All 
this  fantastic  and  graceful  decoration   is   abandoned,  and 

^  But  see,  below,  what  is  said  of  the  Ministire  de  la  Marine.,  built  fifty  years 
later. 


Sec.  I]  FRANCE  485 

the  wall-surface  is  blank  and  bare,  and  pierced  with  equal 
openings  at  equal  distances  and  not  otherwise  enriched, 
except  where  a  portico  or  an  order  of  pilasters  is  intro- 
duced. There  remains  indQQd  proporh'on,  and  this  is  the 
great  virtue  of  the  late  neo-classic  styles ;  but  indeed  pro- 
portion grows  in  charm  as  it  grows  more  subtile  and  unex- 
pected, and  the  proportion  obtainable  in  the  large  flat  walls 
of  a  three-story  structure  is  not  especially  fine  nor  in- 
spiriting. The  Ecole  Militaire,  near  the  Hotel  des  Inva- 
lides,  may  be  compared  with  that  structure  in  this  respect. 
It  is  thirty  years  later:  it  has  three  porticoes  projecting 
from  its  central  mass  and  its  two  wings,  but  except  for 
these  the  vast  structure,  as  long  as  the  garden-front  of 
Versailles,  has  very  little  architectural  pretension.  To 
compare  with  these  two  buildings  the  more  ornate  designs 
of  the  time  is  to  come  back  to  the  other  part  of  the  same 
alternative :  thus  the  four  fronts  of  the  Place  Vendome  in 
Paris,  built  in  1699,  and  the  curved  fa9ades  on  the  Place 
des  Victoires,  a  little  earlier,  offer  the  familiar  row  of  pilas- 
ters set  upon  a  basement,  the  pilasters  enclosing  two  or 
three  stories  of  the  houses  behind  them. 

The  rich  buildings  of  seventy  years  later  are  adorned 
as  the  eastern  front  of  the  Louvre  is  adorned.  There  can 
hardly  be  in  Europe  a  finer  example  of  the  late  neo-classic 
than  the  Minisiere  de  la  Marine  and  its  neighbour  and 
peer,  the  row  of  private  houses  on  the  other  side  of  the 
rue  Royale,  both  fronts  looking  southward  on  the  large 
—  too  large  —  Place  de  la  Concorde.  Each  front  (see  Fig. 
235)  is  over  three  hundred  feet  in  length,  and  each  con- 
sists of  two  wings  projecting  and  faced  with  temple-like 


486 


WESTERN   EUROPE,   1665   TO    1789   A.D. 


[Chap.  IX 


tetrastyle  porticoes  and  pediments,  and  a  deep  portico  be- 
tween, with  twelve  Corinthian  columns :  an  arcaded  base- 
ment rusticated  and  very  sagaciously  broken  to  match  the 
projections  and  retreats  of  the  principal  story,  has  the  gift 
of  looking  massive  enough  in  spite  of  its  many  openings. 
This  design  is  superior  to  that  of  the  Louvre  colonnade, 
and  is  certainly  unsurpassed  by  that  of  any  frontispiece  or 


Fig.  235.     Paris:  Ministere  de  la  Marine.     One  half  of  south  front.     1760  to  1765  a.d. 

fa9ade  in  Europe ;  but  it  helps  establish  the  general  truth 
that  the  style  of  the  eighteenth  century  had  few  resources 
outside  of  Roman  colonnading.  Suppose  these  buildings 
to  be  free  at  the  back,  looking  out  upon  a  narrow  and 
unimportant  street;  the  northern  fa9ades  so  obtained 
would  be  flat  or  slightly  broken  walls  with  evenly  set 
windows  in  them,  and  it  would  be  difficult  to  imagine 
a  system  of  design  which  would  give  them  interest.  The 
slight  decoration  of  the  windows  and  the  medallions  and 


Sec.  I]  FRANCE  487 

festoons,  moderately  introduced  in  the  two  beautiful  south- 
ern fronts,  are  only  the  more  delicate  touches  given  to 
what  is  already  a  very  rich  and  splendid  design.  Orna- 
ments like  these  would  be  of  no  value  on  very  simple 
fa9ades  such  as  those  supposed  above;  and  indeed  it  has 
always  been  felt  that  the  fronts  which  are  not  masked  by 
an  order  of  columns  or  pilasters  are  better  without  such 
minor  decorative  features  as  the  style  could  still  furnish. 
The  eighteenth  century  is  more  rich  in  fine  churches 
than  the  preceding  years.  The  designs  which  are  on  a 
wholly  non-mediaeval  system  are  of  course  the  most  in- 
teresting. Even  the  serious  and  successful  attempt  made 
at  Versailles  to  clothe  a  mediaeval  plan  in  late  classic 
decorative  style  is  less  worthy  of  study  than  the  bold  ex- 
periments seen  in  the  domical  church  of  the  Invalides  and 
the  church  of  S.  Genevieve.  The  former  should  be  con- 
sidered almost  wholly  a  magnificent  monument  erected  in 
honour  of  a  state  religion.  It  was  built  in  1706,  in  addition 
to  and  adjoining  an  older  church  dedicated  to  S.  Louis, 
which  still  stands  in  the  courtyard  of  the  enormous  struct- 
ure built  by  Louis  XIV.  as  an  asylum  for  disabled  soldiers, 
and  is  still  in  use  in  part  for  that  purpose.  The  new  build- 
ing erected  by  Jules  Hardouin  Mansart  is  nearly  two  hun- 
dred feet  square  and  rises  to  the  height  of  three  hundred 
and  forty-five  feet ;  but  in  spite  of  its  considerable  dimen- 
sions it  has  but  a  small  available  interior,  and  affords  only 
a  Greek  cross  with  arms  less  than  forty  feet  wide,  and  four 
round  chapels  covered  with  cupolas  in  the  four  angles  of 
the  cross.  The  solid  masses  are  excessively  great,  and  a 
study  of  the  plan  makes  it  evident  that  a  far  more  massive 


488  WESTERN   EUROPE,   1665   TO    1789   A.D  [Chap.  IX 

superstructure  was  in  the  mind  of  the  architect  than  that 
which  the  distresses  of  the  later  years  of  the  reign  would 
allow.  This  building  is  famous  for  its  constructive  excel- 
lence, and,  indeed,  it  is  a  piece  of  well-considered,  well-calcu- 
lated masonry  up  to  the  top  of  the  drum,  and  also  to  the  top 
of  the  second  stone  cupola  which  is  seen  through  the  great 
ring  in  the  first  or  innermost  cupola.  Above  that,  the  outer- 
most dome,  which  is  seen  from  every  part  of  Paris  and  the 
neighbouring  country  (see  Fig.  236),  is  a  mere  shell  of 
woodwork  covered  with  lead,  with  a  lantern  of  the  same 
inferior  material.  The  very  objectional  form  of  what 
may  be  called  the  aisle-roofs,  that  is  the  roofs  of  the  lower 
structure  surrounding  the  great  dome,  is  common  to  many 
churches  of  the  epoch.  It  is  a  mere  device  for  concealing 
the  roof  altogether  and  in  a  sense  denying  its  existence, 
as  no  means  of  carrying  off  the  roof-water  are  visible. 
The  vaults  are  covered  by  a  roof  sloping  downward  from 
the  outer  wall  and  from  the  wall  which  carries  the  dome, 
toward  a  gutter  in  the  middle.  At  Versailles  no  such 
wretched  deference  to  a  conventional  rule  exists,  but  gar- 
goyles as  bold  as  those  of  a  Gothic  cathedral  carry  off 
the  water;  and  at  S.  Genevieve  the  outer  roof  everywhere 
is  a  visible  and  a  working  roof,  though  it  is  not  of  much 
effect  in  the  exterior  architecture. 

This  last-named  church,  called  also  the  "  Pantheon  de 
Paris  "  since  its  dedication  to  the  heroes  of  France  during 
the  great  revolution,  and  the  putting  up  of  the  celebrated 
inscription  above  its  porch,  Aux  Grands  Hommes  la 
Patrie  Reconnaissante,  is  in  form  a  Greek  cross ;  though 
the  choir  and  a  staircase  beyond  it  at  the  east  end  and 


Fig.  236.     Paris:  Hotel  des  Invalides.     The  later  church.     About  1706  A. D. 


490  WESTERN   EUROPE,   1665   TO    1789   A.D.  [Chap.  IX 

the  great  porch  of  entrance  at  the  west  end  make  its 
outside  dimensions  about  three  hundred  and  eighty  feet 
east  and  west  by  two  hundred  and  seventy-five  north  and 
south.  The  cruciform-shaped  interior  has  aisles  which 
follow  nave,  choir,  and  transept  alike,  and  has,  combined 
with  these,  a  very  unusual  and  striking  arrangement  by 
which  each  one  of  the  four  arms  is  made  a  domical  church 
by  itself  with  a  cruciform  treatment  of  its  own  vaulting. 
At  the  crossing  of  the  nave  and  transept  four  piers  carry 
the  pendentives  of  the  dome,  and  it  is  on  record  that 
these  piers  were  made  too  light  by  the  architect  Jacques 
Germain  SoufHot,  and  were  afterward  rebuilt  with  larger 
section  by  Jean  Baptiste  Rondelet  under  the  reign  of 
Napoleon  I.  The  cupola  is  not  in  itself  of  very  great 
size,  but  it  is  of  masonry  to  the  top,  with  this  pecu- 
liarity, that  the  lantern,  also  of  masonry,  rests  upon  the 
intermediate  cupola  much  as  that  of  S.  Paul's  of  London 
rests  upon  a  brick  cone.  The  greatest  peculiarity  of  the 
exterior  design  is  the  peristyle  of  Corinthian  columns, 
arranged  in  circle  around  the  drum  and  carrying  an 
open  gallery,  so  that  the  cupola  itself  seems  small  in 
comparison  with  the  much  broader  substructure.  The 
windowless  walls  of  the  church  proper  are  treated  very 
skilfully  and  successfully  with  a  modified  Roman  pilaster 
system,  which  gives  great  dignity  and  a  singularly  monu- 
mental character  to  the  building.  The  most  marked  char- 
acter of  the  interior  is  the  admission  of  daylight  through 
the  roof  alone,  and  the  resulting  unbroken  wall  surface 
which  the  painters  of  the  nineteenth  century  are  utilizing. 
The  Madeleine  of   Paris  is  also  of  this  epoch,  though 


Sec.  I]  FRANCE  49 1 

not  finished  until  eighty  years  after  the  adoption  of 
its  design.  Large  and  splendid  as  it  is,  it  cannot  greatly 
interest  the  student  of  architecture  except  as  a  study 
of  light  and  shade  on  great  masses  of  columnar  and 
trabeated  construction.  It  is  the  semblance  of  a  Roman 
Corinthian  temple,  peripteral  and  octostyle  and  of 
enormous  size,  but  is  entirely  built  of  small  materials, 
its  columns  built  up  like  towers  and  its  architraves  com- 
posed of  flat  arches.  Such  building  is  not  strictly  archi- 
tecture, but  is  scenic  or  theatrical  work,  whatever  its  cost 
or  permanence.  The  fault  of  the  architecture  of  this 
epoch,  taken  together,  is,  of  course,  its  tendency  toward 
the  scenic  and  theatrical,  —  the  lack  of  a  sufficient  basis 
of  utilitarian  and  constructional  necessity;  but  the  Made- 
leine passes  the  bounds  of  what  is  to  be  received  as 
architecture  at  all.  Far  more  important  to  our  enquiry 
is  the  Paris  church  of  S.  Roch  fronting  on  the  rue 
S.  Honore.  This  church,  the  interior  of  which  is  given 
in  Fig.  215,  was  begun  in  1653,  by  Jacques  Lemercier, 
and  all  that  is  valuable  in  the  church  is  due  to  this  artist, 
for  the  front  is  unimportant.  The  interior  is  arranged 
upon  a  cruciform  plan,  with  clear-story  windows  in  the 
lunettes  of  the  vault.  Its  design  is  extremely  massive ; 
Roman  Doric,  with  square  piers  faced  by  flat  pilasters, 
which  act  as  vaulting-shafts.  Once  the  presence  of 
heavy  piers  in  the  interior  admitted,  and  the  conse- 
quent separation  of  aisles  from  nave,  and  the  interior 
of  S.  Roch  becomes  a  model  for  all  artists  who  wish  for 
grave  and  dignified  interior  design.  Strangely  in  contrast 
is  the  interior  of  S.  Sulpice,  on  the  south  side  of   the 


492  WESTERN  EUROPE,   1665  TO   1789  A.D.  [Chap.  IX 

Seine:  the  church  which  even  unobserving  travellers 
know  from  its  remarkable  front  of  open  porticoes  in  two 
stories.  Although  the  plan  is  by  Levau  and  dates  from 
the  earlier  days  of  Louis  XIV.,  and  although  the  lower 
part  of  the  interior  is  as  severe  and  in  as  noble  a  style 
as  S.  Roch,  the  vaulted  roof,  with  its  exaggerated,  perhaps 
elliptical  section,  and  its  wretched  applied  ornaments,  is  a 
complete  example  of  the  influence  of  the  worst  Italian 
taste,  —  that  of  the  school  of  Borromini  represented  by 
Oppenordt.  This  vulgar  decoration,  which  in  Italy  is 
only  worthy  of  contempt,  and  is  as  bad  in  France  when 
applied  to  the  more  massive  works  of  architecture,  is  yet 
allied  to  the  very  fascinating  interior  decoration  which  is 
called  that  of  the  Rococo  or  Pompadour  style. 

After  the  death  of  Louis  XIV.,  in  171 5,  the  general 
relaxation  from  the  narrow-minded  severity  of  his  later 
days  showed  itself  at  once  in  the  architecture  of  the 
time.  The  private  houses  which  were  built  during  the 
reign  of  Louis  XV.,  the  first  eight  years  of  which  were 
the  famous  Regency,  are  models  of  careful  and  skilful 
arrangement,  and  are  considered  by  the  French  as  the 
beginning  of  their  own  modern  system  of  house-planning, 
which,  of  course,  is  widely  different  from  the  English 
system.  The  smaller  size  and  more  domestic  character 
of  the  rooms  brought  with  them  the  decoration  in  moulded 
and  embossed  plaster  for  the  ceilings,  and  in  wooden  pan- 
elling carved  in  delicate  scroll-work  painted  white  and 
gilded,  with  pictures  of  some  value  set  over  the  doors  or 
painted  on  panels ;  which  decoration  has  never  since  ceased 
to  be  in  special  favour  in  France.     This  simple  style  was 


Sec.  I]  FRANCE  493 

easy  to  elaborate  into  something  much  richer,  when  means 
were  sufficient  and  the  occasion  called  for  it.  Thus,  in 
the  Hotel  de  Rohan-Soubise,  which  is  now  used  for  the 
National  Archives  of  France,  the  rooms  in  which  is  kept 
the  Museum  of  Manuscripts  and  Autographs  were  deco- 
rated about  1736  in  a  superb  style,  which  combines  the 
new  eighteenth-century  minuteness  with  some  of  the 
power  shown  by  Charles  Lebrun  and  his  able  contem- 
poraries during  the  previous  reign.  It  is  as  if  the  large 
Style  Louis  Quatorze,  as  it  is  seen  through  all  modern 
retouching  in  the  Gilded  Gallery  of  the  Bank  of  France 
and  the  Gallery  of  Apollo  in  the  Louvre,  had  been  con- 
sulted by  the  artists  in  charge  of  the  Hotel  Soubise,  who 
learned  there  what  modifications  their  dainty  contempo- 
rary art  would  need  when  applied  to  large  apartments. 
Figure  237  shows  a  part  of  the  oval  drawing-room  of  the 
Hotel  Soubise.  This  rococo  style,  which  it  is  easy  to 
find  fault  with  for  its  unconstructional  system  and  its 
absence  of  firm  basic  lines,  exhibits  these  faults  far  more 
plainly  in  the  movable  objects  of  the  time  —  furniture, 
mirror  frames,  coffrets,  etuis  —  than  in  even  the  smallest 
and  least  architectural  pieces  of  building-decoration ;  but 
what  is  extremely  curious  is  that  it  is  very  difficult  to  find 
in  France  a  building  whose  exterior  in  any  way  corre- 
sponds to  the  common  idea  of  the  Style  Pompadour.  It 
is  curious  to  note  that  the  external  structure  of  that  very 
oval  drawing-room  is  the  severe  little  pavilion  shown  in 
Fig.  238.  In  fact,  the  reaction  under  Servandony  had 
begun  before  the  more  florid  style  had  taken  strong  hold. 
That  able  man  had  been  appointed  director  of  the  decora- 


Fig,  237.     Paris :  Former  Hotel  Soubise,  now  National  Archives.     Interior  of  a  saloon. 

About  1730. 


Sec.  I] 


FRANCE 


495 


tions  in  the  Paris  Opera  House  as  early  as  1728;  and 
four  years  later  he  began  the  front  of  S.  Sulpice,  in 
Paris,  which  front  was  a  strong  and  successful  attempt  to 


Fig.  238.     Paris :  Former  Hotel  Soubise,  now  National  Archives.    Exterior  of  a  pavilion 

(see  Fig.  237). 

bring  back  architectural  design  to  classical  purity  of  feel- 
ing. The  rococo  decorative  style  may  be  said  to  have 
endured  fifty  years,  from  1720  to  1770,  but  the  buildings 


496  WESTERN  EUROPE,  1665  TO   1789  A.D.  [Chap.  IX 

which  the  guide-books  speak  of  as  rococo  in  style  are 
generally  much  earlier  in  date,  such  as  the  front  of  the 
church  of  S.  Paul  ana  S.  Louis  on  the  rue  S.  Antoine 
mentioned  above. 

The  front  of  S.  Sulpice  was  completed,  except  the 
towers,  between  1732  and  1746.  It  consists  of  two  stories, 
of  which  the  lower  one  is  a  Doric  portico  between  two 
projecting  enclosed  wings,  and  of  which  the  second  is 
Ionic  with  arches  resting  on  imposts  between  the  col- 
umns. The  whole  is  on  a  very  large  scale,  the  width  of 
the  front  being  about  180  feet,  and  the  towers  higher  than 
those  of  Notre  Dame.  The  design  was  a  new  departure 
in  architecture,  and  is  extremely  effective,  although  there 
is  a  certain  lack  of  fitness  in  the  large  upper  galleries, 
which  seem  intended  to  hold  a  crowd. 

Other  buildings  of  late  date  are,  besides  the  Ministere 
de  la  Marine  and  the  Pantheon  already  mentioned,  the 
Halle  au  Ble,  near  the  Louvre,  the  Mint  on  the  Quai 
Conti,  near  the  Pont  Neuf,  the  church  of  S.  Philippe  du 
Roule,  I'Ecole  de  Droit,  near  the  Pantheon,  I'Ecole  de 
Medecine,  except  its  nineteenth-century  front,  the  Odeon 
and  the  Palace  of  Prince  de  Salm,  which  forms  the  nucleus 
of  the  present  palace  of  the  Legion  of  Honour.  The  sever- 
ity of  design  familiar  to  those  who  know  Marie  Antoinette 
furniture,  in  which  the  delicate  ornamentation  is  contained 
within  decided  and  generally  straight  bounding  lines,  is 
present  in  all  these  buildings  in  greater  or  less  degree.  It 
is  one  of  the  artistic  glories  of  France  that  the  later  neo- 
classic  architecture,  with  its  constant  tendency  toward 
excess,  never  reached  any  serious  degradation  such  as  is 


Sec.  II] 


PROVINCES,  N.   AND   S.   OF   FRANCE 


497 


commonly  found  in  seventeenth  and  eighteenth  century 
buildings  elsewhere  in  Europe. 


II 

In  the  lands  which  now  form  the  two  little  kingdoms  of 
Belgium  and  the  Netherlands,  the  epoch  from  1665  to  the 
French  Revolution 
was  not  one  for- 
tunate for  archi- 
tecture. It  would 
be  unfair  to  take 
the  doorway  shown 
in  Fig.  239  as  rep- 
resentative of  the 
ornamental  build- 
ing of  the  time ; 
and  yet  it  shows  in 
an  unexaggerated 
manner  some  of 
the  tendencies 
against  which  art 
had  to  strive ;  not 
always  successfully. 
There  is  the  same 
false  picturesque- 
ness  in  detail  which 
we  have  found  too 


Fig.  239.     Antwerp,   Belgium :    Doorway   of  a   court. 
1663  A.D. 


common  in  Elizabethan  architecture,  and  which  consists 
in  sharp  edges  and  abrupt  curvature;    and   there    is    an 


2K 


498  WESTERN   EUROPE,   1665   TO    17S9   A.D.  [Chap.  IX 

excess  in  the  purely  architectural  forms  which  the  Eliza- 
bethan style  was  free  from.  The  beauty  of  the  masses 
in  the  Elizabethan  country  houses  seems  not  to  have 
found  its  way  to  the  Netherland  provinces.  The  wonder- 
ful charm  of  sixteenth-century  work  is  gone,  and  nothing 
is  left  to  replace  it  except  a  grave  simplicity  in  many 
buildings  both  public  and  private;  buildings  in  which 
indeed  there  is  little  architectural  art  except  that  which 
lies  in  tranquillity  and  not  unpleasing  outlines. 

The  dwelling-houses  in  the  Belgian  towns  retain,  down 
to  the  end  of  the  reign  of  Louis  XIV.  of  France,  a  sin- 
gular independence  of  the  general  current  of  European 
architecture,  and  dated  buildings  of  this  class  exist  which 
are  built  with  a  considerable  sense  of  architectural  effect, 
and  yet  are  neither  belated  Gothic  nor  revived  classic.  In 
this  they  resemble  those  Elizabethan  and  Jacobean  build- 
ings in  England  whicji  are  the  most  nearly  free  from  the 
peculiar  strap  ornament  and  scroll  ornament  of  the  time. 
Such  houses  exist  in  Ghent  on  the  quays  and  in  Brus- 
sels on  the  great  squares ;  many  of  them  are  disfigured 
with  misapplied  carving,  but  the  simplest  are  of  great 
interest. 

The  church  of  S.  Michael  at  Louvain  is  an  excellent 
example  of  a  style  rarely  found  in  France.  It  marks  the 
later  development  of  that  curious,  overcharged,  and  un- 
organized system  of  decoration  which  is  called  the  style 
of  the  Jesuit  churches.  The  great  abundance  of  broken 
curves,  short  and  abruptly  terminated  lines,  and  mean- 
ingless added  details  other  than  sculpture,  could  all  be 
endured   if    any   general   feeling   for    appropriateness    of 


Fig.  240.     Louvain,  Belgium:  Church  of  S.  Michafil.     Part  of  front.     1650  to  i66o  A.D. 


WESTERN   EUROPE,   1665   TO    1789   A.D. 


[Chap.  IX 


design,  or  any  strong  sense  of 
proportion,  had  controlled  this 
front  (see  Fig.  240). 

In    Spain,  the   style  which  is 
named    after    Josef    de    Churri- 
guera  was    flourishing  in    1665. 
It  is  a  belated  form  of  the  cor- 
rupt and  degraded  Italian  of  the 
Borromini  school,  but  there  is  in 
it  a  charm  which  the  Italian  work 
does    not    possess,    coming    evi- 
dently from   the   natural   ability 
of   such  designers   as   Pedro  de 
Ribera    and    Geronimo    Barbas, 
and  especially  Churriguera  him- 
self.    The  newer  cathedral,  "  El 
Pilar,"  at  Zaragoza,  is  nearly  all 
of  1677,  and  in  the  same  town 
is   the   church  of   S.   Cajetan, 
with  a  remarkable  fa9ade  con- 
sisting of  a  gable  between  two 
towers.     The    fa9ade    of   the 
old  cathedral  is  flanked  by  a 
spirited     tower     dated     1685, 
while  the  new  cathedral  itself 
has   one  of   its  towers  nearly 
completed,  which  also  is  worthy 
of  notice.      Figure  241  shows 

'^        Fig.  241.     Zaragoza,  Spain:    Old   cathedral. 
Tower.      Probably  about  1685  A.D. 


Sec.  II]  PROVINCES,  N.  AND   S.  OF   FRANCE  50I 

the  tower  of  the  old  cathedral,  called  "  El  Seo " ;  that 
is,  the  church  of  the  see  or  the  diocese.  It  is  entirely 
of  brick-work  except  the  great  balustrade  at  the  top  of 
the  basement,  and  the  pinnacles  and  pedestal,  which 
are  perhaps  later  in  date.  It  is  of  course  as  heretical 
when  tried  by  the  classical  laws  as  any  Jesuit  church  of 
Italy  or  of  Germany,  but  there  is  boldness  of  design  about 
it  which  is  not  common.  The  front  of  the  cathedral  of 
Santiago  de  Compostela,  which  was  built  between  1680 
and  1 700,  is  still  more  to  the  purpose,  as  showing  how  the 
Spaniards  whom  we  have  named  and  their  fellows  could 
treat  ornament  when  applied  in  excessive  and  overwhelm- 
ing quantity.  This  front  is  covered  all  over  with  scrolls, 
engaged  columns  with  carved  shafts,  and  others  whose 
shafts  have  a  few  large  fiutes,  dwarf  buttresses  ending  in 
volutes,  pinnacles  of  square  section  and  elaborate  outline, 
and  statues  of  spirited  pose  and  gesture.  All  this  is 
applied  not  upon  a  flat  fa9ade ;  the  west  front  consists  of 
two  square  towers  with  an  extremely  ornate  and  lofty 
gable  between  them,  and  has  the  unusual  addition  of  two 
enclosed  porches,  one  to  the  north  and  one  to  the  south, 
and  between  these  an  enormous  double  perron ;  moreover, 
the  breaking  up  of  the  front  with  columns  carrying  res- 
sauts  is  unusually  bold.  All  this,  which  it  would  be  easy 
to  make  ridiculous,  is  saved  by  the  extraordinary  skill  with 
which  it  is  handled.  Something  of  the  same  skilful  use 
of  inferior  ornamental  materials  is  visible  in  the  celebrated 
front  portal  of  the  palace  of  S.  Elmo  at  Seville,  the  date 
of  which  is  about  1720.  The  front  of  the  Ayuntamiento 
or  town-house  at  Salamanca  of  the  same  epoch  shows  the 


502  WESTERN  EUROPE,  1665  TO   1789  A.D.  [Chap.  IX 

poor  details  carried  farther  in  the  road  toward  complete 
barbarism;  the  firm  lines  of  the  architecture  almost  con- 
cealed by  the  ungainly  broken  curves  and  unorganized 
and  unarranged  rosettes  and  bouquets.  This  building  is, 
however,  saved  from  entire  badness  partly  by  the  grave 
arcade  which  serves  as  an  open  gateway  between  streets, 
and  which  seems  like  a  work  of  the  Renaissance,  and 
partly  by  a  sense  of  general  proportion  which  has  kept 
the  larger  masses  of  the  building  in  order.  One  feature 
common  to  these  able  artists  of  a  degenerate  time  is  the 
decorative  structure  built  above  the  cornice  and  assuming 
shapes  sometimes  more  like  a  gable,  as  at  Santiago  and 
at  S.  Cajetan  of  Zaragoza,  sometimes  of  a  bell-gable 
as  at  Salamanca  town-house,  sometimes  of  what  seems  a 
Roman  triumphal  arch  as  in  the  S.  Elmo  palace  at 
Seville.  Sometimes  it  is  pierced  so  that  the  statues  are 
seen  against  the  sky  beyond,  sometimes  it  is  massive,  and 
pretends  to  mask  a  roof;  but  in  any  case  it  is  an  orna- 
mental adjunct  to  a  front,  whether  of  a  church  or  of  a  civic 
or  domestic  building,  which  is  well  worthy  of  study. 

The  restraining  influence  of  good  taste  and  native 
power  of  design  which  is  plainly  seen  in  the  buildings 
named  above  disappears  in  some  structures  of  the  same 
time;  that  is,  from  1720  to  1750.  At  Granada  the  Sacristy 
of  the  Cartuja,  or  Carthusian  Convent  Church,  is  given  over 
entirely  to  mere  gimcrack  ornament,  the  underlying  prin- 
ciple of  which  is  to  leave  no  straight  line  or  curve  of  the 
constructional  parts  unbroken ;  to  pile  one  irregular  and 
formless  detail  upon  another,  and  to  magnify  the  meanest 
details  of  inferior  metal-work.     This  evil  tendency  found 


Sec.  II j 


PROVINCES,  N.  AND  S.  OF  FRANCE 


503 


opposition,  and  successful  opposition,  in  another  body  of 
architects,  who  brought  renewed  study  of  actual  Roman 
antiquity  and  a  purer  taste  to  their  work.  The  grave  and 
manly  design  of  the  Royal  Palace  at  Madrid  is  like  the 


Fig.  242.     Madrid,  Spain :  Palace  court.     About  1730  A. D. 


introduction  of  the  feeling  of  1550  into  the  Spain  of  1730. 
The  exterior  is  a  very  dignified  composition,  having  noth- 
ing but  its  colossal  order  to  indicate  its  late  date,  and  no 
serious  fault  as  a  design  except  the  too  equal  division  of 


504  WESTERN   EUROPE,   1665   TO    1789  A.D,  [Chap.  IX 

its  walls  horizontally,  —  resulting  from  the  unusual  height 
of  the  basement.  The  great  court  with  its  arcades  in  two 
stories,  all  on  a  very  large  scale  and  of  a  severe  Roman 
style,  except  for  the  Ionic  capitals  with  their  festoons, 
looks  like  nothing  so  much  as  a  Roman  cortile  of  two 
hundred  years  before  (see  Fig.  242).  The  charming 
palace  at  La  Granja  is,  as  the  guide-books  say,  a  piece 
of  pure  French  Louis  Quinze  design  imported  bodily  into 
Spain.  It  is  more  nearly  rococo  in  style  than  anything 
in  France  that  we  have  had  occasion  to  specify,  and  its 
accessories  in  the  garden  and  elsewhere  are  still  more 
baroque  in  character.  The  interesting  triumphal  gateway 
called  the  Alcala  Gate,  at  Madrid,  built  in  1778,  as  an 
inscription  states,  is  a  design  of  mixed  character.  The 
main  lines  are  extremely  firm  and  the  main  masses 
fortunately  combined.  There  is  nothing  to  consider 
extravagant  or  excessive  but  the  sculptured  details,  which 
are  indeed  unmistakably  Pompadour. 

Ill 

In  Germany  the  epoch  opens  amid  a  confusion  of  exag- 
gerated forms  and  a  constant  search  for  novelty,  which 
have  an  odd  effect  when  displayed  within  the  limits  of 
the  latest  neo-classic  style.  The  same  love  of  the  pictu- 
resque, which  we  have  found  always  characteristic  of  Ger- 
man work,  has  now,  at  the  close  of  the  seventeenth  century, 
given  up  gables  and  steep  roofs  and  turrets,  and  shows 
itself  in  constant  efforts  to  modify  the  classical  orders  and 
to  use  those  orders  themselves  for  very  non-classic  effects. 


Sec.  Ill]  GERMANY  505 

Thus  the  great  building  formerly  the  palace  Czernin  at 
Prague,  in  the  suburb  Hradschin,  built  in  1670,  has  a 
basement  about  twenty-four  feet  high,  of  which  the  whole 
face  is  broken  into  projecting  piers ;  and  the  piers  and 
recesses  alike  are  built  of  stone  in  high  courses,  every 
stone  cut  to  a  pyramid  of  considerable  projection.  Upon 
this  basement  stands  an  order  four  stories  high,  the  en- 
gaged, composite  columns  resting  each  upon  one  of  the 
piers  of  the  basement,  and  carrying  each  a  portion  of  the 
entablature  in  a  ressauL  But  in  order  that  the  fourth 
story  may  be  lighted  with  sufficient  windows,  the  entabla- 
ture between  the  ressaut  is  entirely  omitted  except  for 
the  cornice,  and  some  very  irregular  consoles  which  sup- 
port it.  Other  and  equally  irregular  modifications  of  the 
Composite  order  and  of  Roman  style,  even  considered  in 
the  most  liberal  way,  are  introduced.  Thus  the  old  Ex- 
change (die  alte  Boerse)  at  Leipzig,  built  about  1680, 
is  faced  with  very  flat  pilasters  which  are  panelled,  and 
have  a  singular  sculpture  of  laurel  leaves  in  the  panels 
and  capitals  bearing  some  semblance  to  late  Roman  Ionic 
capitals.  This  order  is  two  stories  high,  and  its  entabla- 
ture, as  well  as  the  panelled  pilasters,  is  out  of  all  custom 
and  denies  all  authority.  Even  the  strange  double  door- 
piece  seems  not  out  of  place  in  this  tasteless  composition. 
In  contrast  with  these  extravagant  conceptions  are  the 
very  plain  buildings  for  which  no  porticoes  nor  other 
architectural  decoration  of  the  style  could  be  allowed, 
and  which  have  nothing  but  their  mass  to  recommend 
them,  lacking  as  they  do  almost  wholly  the  charm 
of   proportion.      One    of   these    is    the    great    palace    of 


5o6 


WESTERN   EUROPE,   1665   TO    1789   A.D. 


[Chap.  IX 


Schleissheim    near     Munich,    which    is    devoid    of     this 
and   all    other   architectural    charm.      The    neighbouring 

country  palace  of 
Nymphenburg  is 
equally  uninterest- 
ing, but  is  also  less 
pretentious.  These 
structures,  dating 
from  1 665  and  1 685, 
are  specimens  of 
the  huge,  dull,  unat- 
tractive continental 
palaces  of  which 
some  have  been  de- 
stroyed but  many 
remain.  They 
show  the  worst  side 
of  the  classical  re- 
vival,  combining 
the  most  unattrac- 
tive exteriors  with 
suites  of  state  apart- 
ments bedizened 
with  tasteless  and 
immoderate  orna- 
mentation, A  good 
instance  of  the  very 

Fig.  243.    Zurich,  Switzerland :  Town-hall.    About  1700.       nnintPrestincr   exte- 

rior,  which  though  not  extravagant  is  worse,  that  is  to  say, 
intolerably  dull,  is   the   Stadthaus   or  town-hall  at  Zurich, 


Sec.  Ill]  GERMANY  507 

built  in  1694.  Figure  243  gives  a  detail  of  this  building.  It 
may  have  been  thought  that  a  plain  building  was  appropriate 
to  a  small  republican  canton,  but  the  complete  absence  of 
picturesque  or  other  charm  is  an  evidence  of  the  compar- 
ative difficulty  of  dealing  with  such  structures  of  moder- 
ate size  in  the  late  neo-classic  styles.  The  style  is  always 
tending  either  to  extravagance  or  to  dulness  when  its  one 
decorative  feature,  that  of  the  large  Roman  order,  is 
taken  from  it ;  and  there  are  few  buildings  in  which  neither 
of  these  tendencies  can  be  seen  to  prevail.  One  such 
building,  however,  is  the  beautiful  Rathhaus  at  Magde- 
burg in  Prussian  Saxony,  which  building  was  begun  and 
finished  during  the  last  decade  of  the  century.  Figure 
244  gives  a  part  of  this  attractive  building,  in  which  no 
doubt  minor  faults  can  be  found,  such  as  the  insufficient 
projection  of  the  basement  wall  with  relation  to  the  order 
above,  and  which  has,  in  its  pediment,  sculpture  which 
would  be  quite  impossible  in  a  public  building  elsewhere 
than  in  seventeenth-century  Germany,  but  which  is  still 
a  gem  of  simplicity  and  fitness. 

The  principal  palace  of  Berlin,  the  Konigliches  Schloss, 
was  built  nearly  complete  during  the  first  fifteen  years  of 
the  eighteenth  century.  It  is  a  typical  example  of  the 
uninteresting  palaces  so  common  throughout  Germany 
and  the  adjacent  lands.  Here  and  there  is  a  colonnade  of 
four  or,  in  the  courts,  of  eight  Corinthian  columns,  not 
badly  proportioned,  and  here  and  there  is  a  corresponding 
disposition  of  pilasters  with  the  whimsical  peculiarity  that 
the  pilasters  are  fluted,  while  the  columns,  though  not  of 
beautiful  material,  are  plain.     The  courts,  with  their  occa- 


_j_: ■    ^a      1^    :/_^.   I'-j'r ^'yy^t'i  ■'a'y^"fe^^' 's y'l   't b t 


Fig.  244.     Magdeburg,  Germany:  Rathhaus.     About  1690  a. d. 


Sec.  Ill]  GERMANY  509 

sional  arcaded  galleries  and  with  bolder  colonnades,  are 
more  diversified  with  light  and  shade,  but  even  here 
monotonous  bigness  rules.  The  exterior,  with  its  long 
rows  of  ill-designed  windows,  its  porches  of  columns  too 
flat  against  the  wall,  and  its  cornice  much  too  small  in  its 
details  for  its  great  height  above  the  eye,  is  as  unattrac- 
tive as  a  building  of  great  size  and  fine  material  can  be 
made,  unless  by  the  intrusion  of  actually  monstrous  and 
offensive  detail.  The  palace  of  Charlottenburg  near  Ber- 
lin is  somewhat  later.  Its  interior  displays  almost  every 
variety  of  rococo  decoration  carried  to  extreme,  but  the 
exterior  has  a  certain  beauty  of  proportion  which  redeems 
it  in  spite  of  its  impure  detail.  There  is  a  colossal  order, 
but  only  of  two  stories,  and  this  is  placed  upon  a  very  suf- 
ficient basement.  The  cupola  on  its  high  drum  is  a  little 
heavy  for  the  central  building  which  it  crowns,  but  is  good 
in  itself ;  an  excellent  specimen  of  the  extravagant  pseudo- 
Roman  style  of  1705.  There  is  an  old  palace  at  Erfurt, 
once  the  residence  of  the  governor  sent  by  the  Bishop  of 
Mayence,  and  now  used  for  some  government  purpose,  in 
which  rococo  details  are  carried  as  far  perhaps  as  they  can 
be  in  exterior  architecture.  The  pillars  on  each  side  of 
the  great  doorway  are  colossal  telamones,  the  terminal 
pillars  of  which  are  set  with  an  edge  instead  of  a  flat 
surface  in  front.  Pedestals  above,  set  in  the  same  fashion, 
support  the  large  scroll  buttresses  of  the  window  piece, 
above  which  buttresses  end  in  festoons  of  fruit,  and  support 
figures  of  about  life-size  in  disorderly  attitudes.  The  sills 
of  the  basement  windows  project  only  two  inches,  but  they 
have  the  seeming  support  of  console  brackets  which  pro- 


5IO  WESTERN   EUROPE,  1665   TO    1789  A.D.  [Chap.  IX 

ject  a  foot,  and  the  multifarious  details  of  the  exterior  are 
all  of  this  general  character.  This  building  is  of  about 
1 715.  The  match  for  this  in  absurdity  of  sculptured  orna- 
ment both  outside  and  inside  is  the  old  Palace  Trautson  at 
Vienna.  Here,  however,  the  great  order  above,  and  the 
basement  below,  have  somewhat  more  dignity,  and  the 
sculpture  is,  therefore,  less  ruinous  in  effect.  In  the  same 
city  of  Vienna,  the  highest  reach  of  inappropriate  design 
exists  in  the  church  of  S.  Charles  Borromeo,  begun  about 
1720.  A  very  well-proportioned  portico  with  six  Corin- 
thian columns  and  a  pediment  and  a  cupola  on  a  high 
drum,  perhaps  not  inferior  to  that  of  Charlottenburg  men- 
tioned above,  are  lost  in  a  confusion  of  unmeaning  adjuncts. 
The  often  criticised  Z  winger  at  Dresden,  of  the  same  epoch, 
should  be  compared  with  such  ill-conceived  building  as 
this,  because  the  Zwinger  is  well  and  appropriately  planned 
and  distributed.  It  is,  moreover,  full  of  a  fanciful  grace  in 
its  minor  parts  supported  by  a  really  dignified  sobriety  in 
its  principal  mass.  That  principal  mass  is  a  structure  of 
one  Roman  order  studied  from  the  Old  Library  at  Venice, 
raised  upon  a  rusticated  basement ;  the  two  wings  of  eight 
bays  each  are  divided  by  an  entrance  portal  studied  from 
a  Roman  triumphal  arch  and  of  the  whole  height  of  the 
structure.  There  is  nothing  baroque  about  that  building 
except  here  and  there  a  stray  detail.  The  four  pavilions 
at  the  corners  of  the  great  court  are  lighter  in  style,  and 
with  slender  piers  dividing  enormous  windows,  so  that  they 
are  filled  with  light,  as  those  will  remember  who  have 
studied  the  collection  of  casts  from  sculpture  which  they 
contain.     The  slight  pilasters,  the  small  spandrels,  and  the 


Sec.  Ill]  GERMANY  51I 

narrow  friezes  are  filled  with  delicate  sculpture  which 
would  befit  rather  the  interior  of  a  theatre  than  the  outside 
of  a  palace ;  but  each  one  of  these  pavilions  is  a  graceful 
and  pretty  building  which  one  can  pass  day  by  day  and 
not  dislike.  There  are  pavilions  in  the  middle  of  the 
sweep  to  the  east  and  to  the  west  which  are  certainly 
more  extravagant,  and  which  it  is  not  easy  to  defend. 
Finally,  the  long  low  gallery  which  encloses  the  great  court 
on  the  southwestern  side  is  as  good  a  light  corridor  of  open 
arches  with  a  terrace  walk  on  top  as  any  palace  can  show. 
Certainly  neither  the  architectural  detail,  nor  the  sculpture 
of  human,  animal,  and  vegetable  forms  is  to  be  proposed  as 
an  example  to  students.  The  whole  school  of  architecture 
which  this  represents  is  abnormal  and  artificial  in  the  ex- 
treme. It  seems  to  be  based  on  the  two  contradictory 
theories  that  Roman  columns  and  pilasters  are  alone  ad- 
mirable as  the  basis  of  design,  and  that  these  columns  and 
pilasters  can  never  be  endured  unless  they  are  half  con- 
cealed, and  all  their  formal  dignity  destroyed  by  masses  of 
unrelated  sculpture.  The  Catholic  Court  Church  at  Dres- 
den is  a  partial  embodiment  of  this  artificial  style  (see 
Fig.  245).  It  is  the  more  fit  for  an  example  as  it  is  well 
conceived  in  general  masses  and  in  the  placing  of  ugly 
details,  and  free  from  such  solecisms  as  the  second  story 
wall  of  S.  Paul's  in  London,  or  the  spacing  of  the  Louvre 
colonnade,  so  as  not  to  allow  of  any  windows  behind  it 
(pp.  477  ff.).  This  building  is  as  reasonable  and  logical  as  the 
Versailles  chapel  (see  p.  482),  however  inferior  in  good  taste. 
The  very  worst  type  of  this  false  architecture,  as  the  Zwin- 
ger  is  perhaps   the  best,  may  be  found  in  the  royal  gate 


512 


WESTERN    EUROPE,  1665   TO    17S9  A.D. 


[Chap.  IX 


(Konigsthor)  at  Stettin, 
and  this    is  curious  in 
that   a   severe    Roman 
Doric  order  was  selected 
as  the  frame  which  was 
to    support     so    ill-de- 
signed and  inappropri- 
ate a  mass  of  sculpture. 
The     finest     interior 
decoration    of    the    ro- 
coco sort,  equal  to  any- 
thing in  France,  is  to 
be  found  in  the  two 
great  Rhine  pleasure- 
castles  of  Briihl  and 
Bruchsal.      A    splen- 
did    apartment     in 
Schloss       Bruchsal, 
once  a  palace  of  the 
Archbishop  of  Speyer 
or  Spier,  is  given  in 
Fig.    246.      Briihl,    a 
former    residence    of 
the  Archbishop-Elec- 
tor of  Cologne,  is  in 
a  way  graceful  in  its 
exterior,  as  well.   The 


Fig.  245.  Dresden,  Germany : 
Catholic  Court  Ch  urch .  1 740 
to  1750  A.u. 


Sec.  ITT] 


GERMANY 


513 


Fig.  246.  liruchsal,  Germany:  Palace  of  the  Archbishop  of  Speyer.    Saloon.    About  1760. 

garden-front,  of  1725,  is  simple  and  not  ill  designed,  and  has 
a  fine  terrace  and  stairways,  as  well  as  a  great  deal  of  beau- 
tiful iron-work.     It  is  a  curious  study  to  compare  with  this 


514 


WESTERN  EUROPE,  1665   TO    17S9   A.D. 


[Chap.  IX 


really  agreeable  palace-front  the  overloaded  exterior  of  the 
Catholic  Court  Church  at  Dresden  of  the  same  epoch. 
This  latter  building  offers,  along  with  its  logical  and  work- 
manlike plan  and  construction,  as  badly  managed  a  colossal 
order  and  as  ugly  windows  as  can  be  found  in  any  seri- 
ously planned  building  in  Europe  (see  Fig.  245).     As  for 


Fig.  247.     Stuttgart,  Germany:  Palace  called  Solitude.     1767  a.d. 


the  palaces,  a  great  number  were  built  in  German  lands 
during  the  years  1 700-1 750,  for  it  seemed  as  if  every 
prince  and  princeling  felt  the  need  of  vying  with  King 
Louis  at  Versailles.  The  poorer  or  the  less  ambitious 
sovereigns  built  the  expressionless  and  meaningless  pal- 
aces of  which  there  has  been  mention ;  but  such  buildings 
as  that  of    Briihl  and  that  of   Charlottenbursf  were  also 


Sec.  Ill] 


GERMANY 


515 


P'iG.  248.     Munich,  Germany :  Street-front.     About  1760  A.  D. 

built,  and  it  is  necessary  to  mention  the  extraordinary 
collection  of  stately  eighteenth-century  structures  at  Pots- 
dam.    This  town,  ten  miles  southwest  of  Berlin,  has  first 


5l6  WESTERN   EUROPE,  1665   TO    1789  A.D.  [Chap.  IX 

the  Stadtschloss,  or  town-palace,  then  the  new  palace  in  the 
Park,  with  its  really  extraordinary  annex  of  the  "  Com- 
muns,"  or  offices,  and  its  orangeries  and  summer-houses : 
then  the  villa  called  Charlottenhof ;  and  finally  the  palace 
of  Sans-Souci.  These  are  royal  palaces;  besides  these 
there  are  public  buildings  in  the  town  dating  from  the 
first  half  of  the  eighteenth  century  and  very  interesting,  at 
least  when  taken  together;  and  some  rows  of  private 
houses  of  about  1775  are  fit  to  rank  with  the  palaces  in 
the  stately  effect  of  their  long  fa9ades.  Probably  in  all 
this  world  of  grandiose  architecture  the  best  designing  is 
in  the  New  Palace,  so  called,  built  by  Frederick  the  Great 
about  1760.  It  is  not  splendid  in  material  or  interior  fit- 
tings, but  it  was  a  skilful  architect  who  dealt  with  these 
open  colonnades  and  high-raised  porticoes.  The  front  on 
the  court  and  facing  the  offices  is  one  of  the  best  instances 
in  Europe  of  a  colossal  order  occupying  the  whole  height 
of  the  building,  without  any  architectural  basement  what- 
ever. The  small  country  palace  called  Solitude,  not  far 
from  Stuttgart,  is  shown  in  Fig.  247.  It  is  as  late  as 
1 765,  and  should  be  compared  with  the  Rathhaus  of  Magde- 
burg seventy  years  earlier  in  date  (see  Fig.  244).  A  good 
specimen  of  the  most  elaborate  rococo  decoration  applied 
to  a  street-front  is  the  detail  shown  in  Fig.  248  from 
IMunich. 

IV 

King  Charles  II.  returned  from  the  continent  and  began 
his  actual  reign  in  1660.  Whatever  hesitation  about 
building  there  had  been  during  the  Commonwealth   and 


Sec.  IV]  ENGLAND  517 

the  Protectorate  disappeared  with  the  Restoration,  because 
there  was  no  longer  a  visible  possibility  of  a  change  of 
government.  The  Archbishop  of  Canterbury  began  at 
once  to  rebuild  Lambeth  Palace,  and  erected  the  great 
hall  in  a  most  incredible  mixed  style.  Gothic  windows 
with  tracery  and  buttresses  with  weatherings  fill  the  wall- 
space,  but  the  wall  is  crowned  with  a  classical  entablature 
which  breaks  around  each  buttress,  and  this  entablature  is 
capped  by  a  pediment  at  each  projecting  wing.  The  notes 
issued  by  the  Society  for  Photographing  Relics  of  Old  Lon- 
don mention  this  as  showing  Archbishop  Juxton's  obsti- 
nate preference  for  the  older  Tudor  Gothic  of  the  rest 
of  his  palace,  but  it  has  rather  the  air  of  a  piece  of  repa- 
ration ;  the  wholly  new  parts  made  classic.  Amesbury 
House  in  Wiltshire  was  built  by  John  Webb  in  1661,  and 
the  central  portion  of  Cobham  Hall  in  Kent  was  built  in 
1662,  and  these  two  buildings  are  absolutely  classic.  The 
fault  of  these  two  buildings  is  not  in  being  too  fanciful; 
they  are  dull;  they  lack  interest.  At  Cobham,  for  in- 
stance, four  Corinthian  pilasters  carry  an  entablature,  and 
between  the  two  middle  pilasters  is  a  classical  door-piece. 
All  this  is  very  good  and  pure,  but  there  is  nothing  else. 
Twenty-seven  plain  windows  in  three  stories  are  pierced 
in  a  blank  brick  wall ;  they  are  regularly  formed  and 
spaced ;  there  is  nothing  to  offend ;  all  is  tranquil  and 
refined,  but  it  is  not  architecture.  Nor  would  such  a 
plain  building  be  named  but  for  the  mention  it  receives  as 
typical,  and  for  the  fact  that  it  really  does  typify  this 
peculiarity  of  English  work  at  this  time;  namely,  that  the 
classical  teachina:  on  the  one  hand  and  the  Gothic  tradi- 


5l8  WESTERN   EUROPE,  1665   TO    1789   A.D.  [Chap.  IX 

tion  on  the  other  were  still  so  much  in  a  position  of  antag- 
onism that  anything  non-Gothic,  and  with  a  fragment  in  it 
of  Italian  detail,  would  be  at  once  accepted  as  sufficiently- 
good  classical  art.  It  must  not  be  forgotten  that  the 
Italian  Renaissance  had  never  been  received  in  England. 
When  classic  forms  came  in,  they  were  those  of  the 
Cinquecento,  the  completed  and  regulated  style  of  Vi- 
gnola  and  Palladio.  Palladio's  books  and  his  example  were 
of  especial  weight  in  England.  There  was  therefore  no 
graceful  and  playful  architecture  of  classical  type  or  of 
classical  origin  offered  to  the  English  in  1665.  If  an 
English  country  gentleman  wished  to  build,  he  had  the 
alternative  between  a  traditional  Elizabethan  or  Jacobean 
style,  such  as  country  builders  might  still  have  been  capa- 
ble of,  and  the  Palladian  classic  style  offered  him  by  such 
architects  as  John  Webb,  Sir  John  Denham,  and  Christo- 
pher Wren.  But  this  last-named  style  has  this  peculiarity 
(see  p.  460  ff.),  that  it  can  do  nothing  except  by  means  of 
colonnades,  or,  at  the  least,  of  an  order  of  pilasters.  An 
inexpensive  building  must  needs  be  uninteresting.  It  is 
therefore  only  the  later  Italian  neo-classic,  as  practised 
by  the  architects  named  above  and  their  successors,  which 
ought  to  be  considered  in  dealing  with  the  architecture  of 
this  epoch.  There  are,  indeed,  the  singular  Gothic  at- 
tempts of  different  architects,  such  as  the  church  of  S. 
Dunstan  in  the  East,  and  the  western  towers  of  West- 
minster Abbey,  but  these  are  of  no  importance  in  the 
history  of  architecture. 

In  1666  was  the  Great  Fire  of  London,  the  most  com- 
plete destruction  perhaps  that  has  ever  befallen  a  large 


Sec.  IV] 


ENGLAND 


519 


town  except  in  ancient  warfare.  Immediately  after  this 
there  came  the  rebuilding  of  S.  Paul's  Cathedral,  and  the 
erection  of  a  host  of  churches  and  other  public  buildings, 


Fig,  249.     London:  Temple  Bar.      1670. 

and  in  all  this  business  Christopher  Wren  took  the  largest 
part.  Temple  Bar,  which  represented  the  old  city  gate 
at  Fleet  Street,  and  which  was  taken  down  in  1878  for  un- 
known reasons,  was   built  by  Wren  in   1670.     Figure  249 


520 


WESTERN   EUROPE,  1665   TO    1789   A.D. 


[Chap.  IX 


shows  its  western  front. 
No  small  building  gives 
a  better  idea  of  Wren's 
design.     Indeed,  it  is  not 
often    that    he    had    an 
opportunity    to    build    a 
small    building    entirely 
of   cut  stone   and  in  an 
elaborate    style.     The 
churches     were     built 
hastily  and  at  slight  ex- 
pense, and  it   is   one  of 
Wren's    claims     to    our 
admiration  that  he  built 
these    churches    of   con- 
siderable   size    at    very 
small    cost.      The    best 
part    of   them   is    proba- 
bly   their    steeples,    and 
yet  even   these    are    un- 
fortunate in  this  respect, 
that     details    entirely 
foreign  to  the  Roman 
style   adopted,   are  al- 
lowed   to    invade    the 
desis:".     Thus  in  the 
celebrated    church    of 

Fig.  250.  London:  Church  of 
S.  Mary  le  Bow.  Steeple  fin- 
ished 1677  A.D. 


Sec.  IV]  ENGLAND  •  52 1 

S.  Mary  le  Bow  in  Cheapside,  the  steeple  is  certainly 
good  in  general  proportion  (see  Fig.  250),  and  the 
transition  from  the  square  tower  to  the  circular  peristyle 
is  well  managed  and  is  agreeable  both  in  front  and 
when  seen  anglewise,  but  the  pinnacles  which  fill  the 
corners  of  the  square  tower  are  of  ugly  form  and  flanked 
by  meaningless  scrolls,  the  reduction  in  size  to  the 
smaller  peristyle  above  is  managed  by  the  most  awkward, 
thin,  and  flat  flying  buttresses,  and  the  terminating  spire 
is  an  obelisk  with  valueless  details  about  its  base.  There 
is  a  degree  of  incongruity  in  these  architectural  details 
which  no  beauty  of  general  proportion  can  redeem.  It  is 
probable  that  Wren's  lack  of  early  and  lifelong  architect- 
ural training  —  for  he  was  a  mathematician  and  astron- 
omer, and  a  scientific  constructor  rather  than  an  architect 
in  his  tendencies  —  told  heavily  against  his  success  in  these 
rapidly  designed  and  hastily  constructed  buildings.  An 
architect  by  early  teaching  would  also  have  been  more 
unwilling  than  Wren  to  roof  metropolitan  churches  with 
lath-and-plaster  sham  vaulting  —  at  a  time,  too,  when  the 
French  architects  whose  work  he  had  studied  were  turn- 
ing vaults  of  solid  masonry.  At  least  it  is  certain  that 
the  steeples  of  his  successors,  especially  of  James  Gibbs, 
are  often  superior  to  Wren's,  as  they  are  perhaps  equal  in 
general  excellence  of  proportion  and  are  more  free  from 
the  serious  faults  of  inappropriateness  and  lack  of  harmony 
of  parts. 

S.  Paul's  Cathedral  is  in  its  interior  a  church  of  unques- 
tionable beauty  and  merit.  The  plan  of  the  existing 
church  was    not,  as    it  appears,  Wren's  choice,  but  it  is 


522  WESTERN   EUROPE,  1665   TO    1789   A.D.  [Chap.  IX 

every  way  excellent  for  interior  effect.  The  great  octa- 
gon formed  by  eight  piers,  and  from  which  spring  the 
arches  which  carry  the  dome,  is  a  singularly  skilful  piece 
of  planning,  and  the  circle  of  the  drum  beneath  the  cupola 
grows  out  of  the  octagon  below  insensibly  and  with  the 
support  of  arches  whose  lightness  is  surprising.  The 
interior  cupola  itself  springs  from  this  drum,  which  is  not 
strictly  cylindrical,  but  slightly  conical,  the  walls  and  the 
order  of  pilasters  which  are  so  effective  when  seen  from 
below  having  alike  an  inward  slope  (see  Fig.  251).  Ex- 
cept always  S.  Peter's,  there  is  no  interior  of  a  cupola  in 
Europe  which  is  more  beautiful  and  which  combines 
better  with  the  church.  The  nave  and  aisles  are  roofed 
with  low  and  flat  cupolas,  each  of  which  is  carried  on 
pendentives  of  unusual  sort.  In  the  nave  the  cupolas  are 
as  wide  as  the  width  of  the  bays  in  the  direction  of  the 
length  of  the  church — that  is  to  say,  east  and  west;  but  as 
the  compartments  of  vaulting  are  oblong,  there  is  a  com- 
mencement of  a  cylindrical  wagon-vault  which  forms  a 
lunette  on  each  side  and  receives  the  clear-story  window. 
In  the  aisles  the  reverse  arrangement  exists,  the  compart- 
ments having  their  greater  length  in  the  direction  of  the 
length  of  the  church.  The  whole  interior  is  marked  by 
an  admirable  proportion  between  the  work  to  be  done 
and  the  means  offered  for  doing  it.  The  student  is  not 
driven  to  long  for  Gothic  lightness,  accepting  this  as  of 
a  different  kind  of  building;  and  assuredly  this  is  not 
equally  true  of  the  important  continental  churches, — even 
of  such  good  ones  as  S.  Roch  in  Paris  (see  Fig.  215).  Of 
the  exterior  it  is  less  easy  to  speak  without  reserve.     In 


Fig.  251.     London:  S.  Paul's  Cathedral.     Partial  section.     1680  to  1710  A.D. 


524  WESTERN  EUROPE,  1665  TO   1789  A.D.  [Chap.  IX 

the  first  place,  the  observer  must  puzzle  out  the  meaning 
of  the  high  outer  wall  along  each  flank,  which  wall  is 
divided  architecturally  into  two  stories  with  a  very  beau- 
tiful order  of  Corinthian  pilasters  for  each  story.  A 
moment's  comparison  of  this  with  the  interior  shows  that 
the  height  of  the  aisle  within  corresponds  with  the  lower 
story  of  these  two.  Of  the  whole  height  of  the  upper 
story,  about  one-quarter  serves  to  enclose  the  garret  be- 
tween the  aisle  vault  and  the  roof  timbers  above,  which 
garret  would  form  the  triforium  in  a  Gothic  church,  and 
which  in  S.  Paul's  is  masked  on  the  interior  by  a  feeble 
row  of  panels  (Fig.  251)  above  the  nave  arches.  The  rest 
of  the  outer  wall  stands  clear,  a  mere  screen,  hiding  the 
clear-story  windows  from  without,  and  enclosing  nothing 
but  an  open  area  at  the  top  of  the  building.  This  is  so 
great  a  solecism,  so  barbarous  a  device,  that  a  stickler  for 
reasonableness  and  naturalism  in  architecture  might  con- 
demn the  exterior  at  once  as  unworthy  of  notice.  Indeed, 
the  flanks  are,  as  to  their  design,  not  architecture,  but 
scenic  decoration.  If  one  studies  them,  it  must  be  as  a 
piece  of  abstract  architectural  designing ;  a  study  of  what 
would  be  good  to  do  if  one  had  a  large  and  long  two- 
story  wall  to  treat  —  a  palace-wall,  or  the  like.  From  this 
point  of  view  an  exterior  such  as  that  of  the  chapel  of 
Versailles  (p.  482)  is  not  only  superior  but  of  a  wholly  dif- 
ferent world ;  that  is  really  architecture ;  and  fine  as  are 
Wren's  two  orders,  they  in  themselves  are  not  different 
from  what  one  can  find  widely  distributed  over  Europe. 
What  is  really  fine,  as  being  at  once  beautiful  in  propor- 
tion and  in  detail,  and  as  coming  directly  from  the  plan 


Sec.  IV]  ENGLAND  525 

and  build  of  the  church,  is  the  west  front.  Here  the  nave 
in  its  upper  part  —  that  is  to  say,  the  clear-story — is  thrust 
forward  to  form  a  portico  of  Corinthian  columns  with 
pediment ;  and  in  the  lower  story  the  nave  and  aisles  to- 
gether, for  the  whole  height  of  the  aisles,  unite  to  form  a 
broader  portico.  The  whole  width  of  nave  and  aisles, 
which  is  the  whole  width  of  the  lower  portico,  is  held 
between  the  two  belfry  towers,  and  the  order  of  the  porti- 
coes is  continued  across  these  towers  and  all  around  the 
church,  but  in  pilasters  instead  of  columns  (see  Fig.  252). 
But  the  front  porticoes  are  even  more  admirably  adjusted 
to  their  place  and  their  requirements  than  the  above 
description  fully  explains.  Thus  the  upper  colonnade  of 
eight  columns  in  couples  has  its  columns  centred  upon 
the  lower  colonnade  of  twelve  columns  in  couples ;  and, 
to  retain  the  accepted  classical  proportions,  the  two  porti- 
coes are  of  nearly  the  same  height.  The  outer  columns 
of  the  lower  portico  are  on  the  axes  of  the  corner  pilasters 
of  the  bell-towers ;  the  outer  columns  of  the  upper  portico 
are  on  the  axes  of  the  pilasters  which  represent  the  front 
of  the  clear-story  wall ;  between  this  upper  portico  and 
the  bell-tower  is  a  recess  with  windows  which  quite  accu- 
rately corresponds  to  the  open  area  above  the  aisle,  and 
which  closes  a  small  chamber  built  above  the  western  end 
of  the  aisle,  leading  to  the  staircase  in  the  bell-tower. 
All  this  is  brought  together  with  but  the  very  slightest 
forcing  of  the  plan.  There  is  nowhere  a  more  perfect 
piece  of  adjustment  and  judicious  building  in  any  neo- 
classic  style,  and  if  there  are  anywhere  examples  of  more 
subtile  and  refined   proportion,  they  are  probably  struct- 


526  WESTERN   EUROPE,  1665   TO    1789  A.D.  [Chap.  IX 

ures  which  required  no  difficult  adjustment  to  a  com- 
plicated building.  The  cupola  of  S.  Paul's  Cathedral  is 
composed  as  follows  (see  Fig.  251):  the  conical  drum 
mentioned  above  carries  an  inner  masonry  cupola  which 
is  about  one  hundred  and  five  feet  in  diameter  and  is  not 
hemispherical,  but  built  with  a  section  which  would  be  a 
pointed  arch  but  that  an  opening  twenty  feet  in  diameter 
is  made  at  the  summit.  There  rises  from  the  solid 
masonry  at  the  abutment  of  this  inner  cupola  two  struct- 
ures, first  an  outer  ring-wall,  which  is  adorned  with  pilas- 
ters and  rises  about  thirty  feet,  and  an  inner  cone  of 
masonry  which  carries  the  lantern.  The  dome  that  is 
seen  from  without  is,  like  the  dome  of  the  Invalides, 
a  fabric  of  wood  covered  with  lead,  and  this  elaborate 
piece  of  carpenter  work  is  built  up  upon  the  ring-wall 
mentioned  above,  and  which  forms  the  outer  tambotir  or 
drum  of  the  dome,  and  upon  the  masonry  cone  which  it 
conceals.  Here,  as  in  the  Invalides,  not  only  are  the 
inner  and  the  outer  domes  distinct,  but  the  outer  dome 
is  not  even  seen  from  within  the  church,  and  no  such 
cupolas  as  these  ought  to  be  compared  in  any  way  with 
such  cupolas  as  those  of  Florence  and  Rome  or  those 
of  Constantinople  and  Bijapur.  But  the  brick  cone  of  S. 
Paul's  has  an  enormous  and  heavy  stone  lantern  to  carry, 
while  in  the  case  of  the  Invalides  the  lantern  also  is  of 
carpenter  work  like  the  shell  of  the  dome.  The  lantern 
at  Florence  is  as  high  as  that  at  London  and  apparently 
heavier;  the  lantern  of  S.  Peter's  is  as  high  and  broader 
and  is  undoubtedly  heavier;  and  these  vast  structures, 
each  as  high  as  a  seven-story  house  and  more  massively 


Fig.  252.     London  :  Cathedral  of  S.  Paul.     South  part  of  west  front  (see  FiG.  251). 


528  WESTERN   EUROPE,  1665   TO    1789  A.D.  [Chap.  IX 

built,  are  carried  by  the  bulging  wall  of  the  dome.  That 
Sir  Christopher  Wren  was  unwilling  to  undertake  such 
a  task  as  this  was  perfectly  natural ;  and  knowing  what 
we  do  of  his  mathematical  and  constructional  knowledge 
and  his  remarkable  power  of  fitting  himself  for  any  task 
he  might  undertake,  we  are  led  to  the  conclusion  that  he 
was  influenced  by  the  considerations  of  expense  and  by  the 
consideration  that  he  was  about  to  surpass  in  thorough- 
ness of  build,  as  well  as  in  size,  the  church  of  the  Invalides, 
a  special  monumental  structure  just  finished  by  the  superb 
king  of  France. 

Another  stately  building  is  the  work  of  Wren :  so  much 
of  Greenwich  Hospital  as  is  included  in  the  two  southern 
or  inshore  buildings.  These  have  very  noble  porticoes 
of  coupled  columns  and  two  cupolas  as  finely  designed  as 
anything  in  the  style.  Another,  and  from  the  point  of 
view  of  stately  designing  perhaps  the  finest,  is  that  part  of 
Hampton  Court  Palace  which  was  built  for  King  William 
ni.  The  front  is  dignified  and  is  unusually  interesting 
as  a  design  in  spite  of  its  simplicity,  and  the  court  front, 
which  has  three  stories  of  windows  above  an  open  arcade 
with  square  piers,  is  one  of  the  best  compositions  which 
can  be  found  in  Europe  of  a  flat  wall  pierced  by  many  win- 
dows. It  is  in  these  buildings  rather  than  in  the  minor 
London  churches  that  Wren's  remarkable  ability  can  best 
be  judged.  It  would  have  required  a  genius  of  unexampled 
power  and  range,  and  a  lifelong  devotion  to  the  one  busi- 
ness of  decorative  building,  to  have  been  successful  with 
forty  churches  undertaken  all  at  once  and  all  inexpensive. 
This  task,  which  would  have  been  of  extreme  difficulty  in 


Sec.  IV]  ENGLAND  529 

any  style  of  architecture,  was  made  almost  hopeless  by  the 
necessity  of  conforming  to  the  grandiose  style  of  Vignola 
and  Palladio. 

Several  private  mansions  of  great  size  and  of  consider- 
able merit  were  erected  in  England  during  the  early  years 
of  the  eighteenth  century.  The  main  block  of  Chatsworth 
in  Derbyshire  dates  from  this  epoch,  the  design  having  been 
settled  as  early  as  1690.  It  is  seldom  that  a  building  with 
so  little  variety  in  its  principal  masses  is  so  successful. 
The  river  front  and  the  two  great  fronts  which  adjoin  it 
are  almost  without  projections  to  throw  shadows,  or  differ- 
ences in  height  to  break  the  skyline.  The  northern  front 
has  indeed  a  rounded  tower-like  centre  rising  a  little  above 
the  other  levels  of  the  building,  and  this  must  have  been 
successful  in  giving  a  charm  to  this  front  before  the  un- 
lucky north  wing  was  added  by  Wyatville  in  1820.  The 
south  front  has  only  two  very  slight  breaks  recessing 
the  centre  by  a  foot  or  two.  The  west  front  with  its 
portico  and  richly  decorated  pediment  is  very  effective, 
except  that  the  basement  on  which  the  engaged  columns 
rest  greatly  needs  more  solidity  and  uniformity;  it  is 
broken  in  the  middle  for  the  doorway  and  is  thus  made 
thinner  and  lighter,  instead  of  more  massive  in  appear- 
ance, than  the  basement  of  the  pilaster  order  elsewhere. 
The  order,  pilasters  and  columns  alike,  is  Ionic  on  the 
south  and  west  fronts,  and  this  order  includes  two  stories 
of  windows.  The  rounded  projection  on  the  north  front 
has  an  order  of  Corinthian  pilasters  and  is  higher  than  the 
Ionic  order  so  as  to  contain  three  stories  of  windows. 
There   is   one  thing  to  be   mentioned  in  the  exterior   of 


530  WESTERN  EUROPE,  1665  TO   1789  A.D.  [Chap.  IX 

Chatsworth,  —  the  rather  free  use  of  sculpture  in  the  west 
pediment,  the  frieze  and  around  the  windows  under  the 
pediment  in  the  guise  of  pendants  seconding  and  enclos- 
ing the  architraves.  The  late  neo-classic  in  England  as 
taken  from  Vignola  and  Palladio  is  almost  without  such 
decoration,  but  a  few  instances  remain  of  somewhat  elabo- 
rate sculpture,  and  it  is  interesting  to  see  this  attempt  to 
enliven  the  narrow-minded  severity  of  the  stricter  style. 
There  remains  in  the  heart  of  London  a  house,  No.  73 
Cheapside,  which  exhibits  similar  decoration  of  a  very 
good  quality.  This  front  has  been  published  by  the  So- 
ciety for  Photographing  Relics  of  Old  London,  and  is  an 
interesting  subject  for  study. 

In  Castle  Howard,  Yorkshire,  built  between  1702  and 
1720  by  Vanbrugh,  the  larger  and  more  stately  country 
mansion  is  completely  typified.  In  this  building,  too,  there 
is  a  great  deal  of  sculpture,  but  confined  to  the  central 
mass ;  this  sculpture,  however,  is  greatly  inferior  in  taste- 
fulness  and  beauty  to  that  of  Chatsworth.  As  regards  the 
main  features  of  the  design,  the  front  of  principal  approach 
is  made  up  of  two  wings  brought  far  in  advance  of  the 
main  building  and  of  only  half  its  height,  and  plain  in 
treatment,  even  to  nakedness,  and  of  the  central  building 
itself  which  has  a  colossal  order  of  pilasters  Roman-Doric 
in  style,  and  a  doorway  and  porch  of  entrance  with  Ionic 
columns.  This  central  building  repays  close  examination. 
The  pilasters  are  arranged  in  couples,  and  each  couple 
carries  a  ressaut,  the  frieze  of  which  has  its  triglyphs, 
though  these  are  absent  from  the  recessed  walls  between. 
The  windows  are  all  in  these  recessed  walls,  and  the  en- 


Sec.  IV]  ENGLAND  53 1 

trance  doorway  and  porch  with  the  large  window  above  it 
is  also  in  such  a  recess.  The  narrow  pieces  of  wall  be- 
tween the  coupled  pilasters  are  occupied  by  niches  with 
statues  and  decorative  vases.  The  whole  design  is  very 
unusual,  and,  except  that  the  windows  in  the  side  recesses 
are  too  crowded,  very  successful ;  the  view  of  it  amounting 
indeed  to  a  new  and  pleasant  experience  to  the  student  of 
the  late  neo-classic.  The  park  front  of  Castle  Howard  is 
as  flat  as  the  opposite  one  is  boldly  diversified.  This  park 
front  embraces  the  main  building,  which  has  been  de- 
scribed above  as  Doric  on  one  side,  and  which  is  Corin- 
thian here,  and  of  two  wings  one  story  high  and  also 
Corinthian.  The  central  mass  carries  a  very  well-designed 
cupola  which  is  equally  visible  in  either  front,  and  which 
helps  in  the  easy  recognition  of  this  central  building  as 
one  and  the  same,  though  with  its  two  fa9ades  very  dif- 
ferent in  treatment.  The  wings  and  the  centre  of  the 
park  front  are  treated  alike,  each  with  a  Corinthian  order 
of  the  whole  height  of  the  wall.  These  two  orders  are 
therefore  very  different  in  scale,  the  one  having  less  than 
two-thirds  the  height  of  the  other.  This  has  been  ob- 
jected to  as  an  impropriety,  but  it  is  easy  to  see  that  it  is 
in  conformity  with  the  practice  of  both  the  Greeks  and 
Romans  of  classic  times.  A  large  Greek  temple  and  a 
small  Greek  temple  had  each  its  columns  and  pilasters, 
and  indeed  its  whole  order  proportioned  to  the  building 
(see  Chap.  I.,  Sec.  I.),  and  at  Paestum,  at  Akragas,  and  at  Syra- 
cuse these  large  and  small  buildings  stood  near  together,  as 
indeed  they  must  have  done  wherever  there  were  more 
temples  than  one.     Moreover,  the  interior  of  a  large  Doric 


532 


WESTERN   EUROPE,    1665   TO    1789   A.D. 


[Chap.  IX 


temple  was  divided  by- 
rows  of  Doric  columns, 
a  larger  row  below  and 
a  smaller  one  set  upon 
it,  so  that  the   Parthe- 
non    contained     three 
Doric   orders  designed 
on  three  different  scales. 
The  Propylaia  at  Athens 
has    two    Doric    orders 
on    different    scales    in 
the  western    front  (see 
Fig.    8).       The     great 
halls  of  Roman  thermae 
were  similarly  adorned, 
and     with     Corinthian 
orders     (see     Fig.    29). 
Authority  and  example 
are    in    favour    of    the 
architect       of       Castle 
Howard.     As    to  good 
taste,  that  is  another 
matter,  and  the  lover 
of  beautiful  architect- 
ure   would    certainly 
prefer  the  renaissance 
device  of  an  order  to 


Fig.  253.  London  :  Church  of 
S.  Mary  le  Strand.  1717 
A.D. 


Sec.  IV]  ENGLAND  533 

each  story,  the  lower  order  probably  stretching  across 
wings  and  central  pavilion  alike. 

Parts  of  the  interior  of  Castle  Howard  are  very  stately, 
especially  the  entrance-hall  with  a  huge  Corinthian  order 
carrying  round  arches  and  vaulted  ceilings ;  but  it  is,  of 
course,  impossible  to  say  how  much  of  this  is  masonry,  — 
whether  the  vaulting  is  not  a  plaster  shell  hung  from  a 
wooden  roof  above,  as  was  too  commonly  the  case.  A 
still  vaster  palace  for  a  nobleman  was  built  by  Vanbrugh, 
the  house  of  Blenheim,  presented  by  the  nation  to  the 
Duke  of  Marlborough.  It  is  much  less  successful  than 
Castle  Howard. 

James  Gibbs  was  practising  as  an  architect  from  about 
1 7 10  until  his  death  in  1754,  and  most  of  his  important 
work  has  value.  The  building  best  known  is  probably 
that  shown  in  Fig.  253  —  the  church  of  S.  Mary  le  Strand 
in  London,  standing  where  The  Strand  and  Holywell 
Street  meet,  at  an  acute  angle  opposite  Somerset  House. 
The  neighbouring  church  of  S.  Clement's  Danes,  also  in 
the  middle  of  The  Strand,  had  been  built  by  Sir  Chris- 
topher Wren,  but  the  steeple  is  by  Gibbs,  and  is  a  very 
successful  design  in  one  of  the  most  difficult  of  styles  for 
a  tower.  This  tower  stands,  too,  on  the  ground,  a  virtue 
not  always  existing  in  the  churches  designed  by  Gibbs. 
S.  Martin's  in  the  Fields,  opposite  the  National  Gallery, 
also  by  Gibbs,  has,  like  S.  Mary  le  Strand,  a  tower  which 
does  not  stand  upon  the  ground.  In  this  case  it  is  set 
upon  the  roof  of  the  porch.  This,  however,  is  not  an 
uncommon  fault  in  London  churches ;  S.  Giles'  in  the 
Fields    and    S.    Leonard's    Shoreditch   have    high    towers 


534  WESTERN   EUROPE,  1665   TO    1789   A.D.  [Chap.  IX 

standing  upon  the  church  roofs,  and  S.  George's,  Hanover 
Square,  has  a  somewhat  lofty  cupola  in  the  same  position, 
that  is,  immediately  back  of  the  portico  and  serving  as  the 
church  tower.  Gibbs'  other  works  are  less  known  except, 
perhaps,  two  really  beautiful  buildings :  the  Senate  House 
at  Cambridge  and  the  Radcliffe  Library  at  Oxford.  The 
building  at  Cambridge  was  erected  about  1725,  and,  as  it 
still  exists,  is  but  one  wing  of  a  much  larger  proposed 
structure.  It  is  a  very  simple  and  well-designed  building, 
with  a  colossal  order  and  two  stories  of  windows.  The 
Radcliffe  Library,  built  about  1740,  is  a  rotunda  with  an 
exterior  order  of  engaged  Corinthian  columns,  and  having 
a  lofty  cupola.  The  chief  mass  of  building  has  two  stories 
above  a  basement,  and  above  these  is  the  entablature  of 
the  order,  and  a  parapet  with  a  flat  roof  behind  it,  from 
which  rises  the  drum  of  the  cupola  exactly  as  the  tower- 
like nave  of  a  round  church  rises  above  its  aisles.  It  is  a 
manly  design,  and  one  of  the  best  classical  buildings  in 
England. 

The  English  architecture  of  the  reign  of  George  II.  and 
of  the  earlier  years  of  George  III.,  or  from  1727  until  about 
1780,  is  homely,  generally  unpretending,  dealing  rather 
with  interiors  than  with  showy  fa9ades,  and  inspired  by  a 
certain  picturesqueness  of  detail  which  makes  the  stair- 
cases, mantels,  ceilings,  and  other  work  in  wood  and 
plaster  singularly  attractive.  This  same  architecture  was 
transplanted  to  America  and  there  reproduced  under 
different  conditions,  a  great  deal  of  the  would-be  classical 
detail  being  worked  in  pine  wood,  planed,  turned,  and 
carved    into   a  semblance    of    stone   architecture.      The 


Sec.  IV]  ENGLAND  535 

varied  woodwork  of  the  interiors  was  even  more  free  of 
classical  influence  than  in  England  at  the  same  time,  and 
the  exposed  timber  framing,  planed  and  chamfered,  shows 
lingering  mediaeval  tradition.  This  is  what  is  called  in 
the  United  States  Old  Colonial  architecture,  and  it  has  a 
great  attraction  for  modern  designers  of  simple  dwelling- 
houses.  The  same,  and  a  still  greater  charm,  is  to  be 
found  in  the  English  buildings  which  still  remain  unal- 
tered, which  buildings  are  sometimes  the  work  of  the 
architects,  Nicholas  Hawksmoor  and  John  James,  for  the 
earlier  reign,  and  John  Carr,  Sir  William  Chambers,  and 
the  brothers  James  and  Robert  Adam,  for  the  years  suc- 
ceeding 1750.  Wood-carving  had  been  raised  to  a  noble 
fine  art  by  the  genius  of  Grinling  Gibbons,  who  died  in 
1720,  after  having  adorned  S.  Paul's  Church  in  London, 
Canterbury  Cathedral,  and  very  many  private  houses  of  his 
time.  Sculpture  in  marble  of  his  exists,  which  has  great 
merit;  but  the  peculiar  reputation  that  he  gained  is 
founded  upon  his  decorative  woodwork.  Although  Gib- 
bons left  no  successor  at  all  his  equal  in  ability  or  repu- 
tation, he  had  founded  a  tradition  which  remained  of 
force  until  very  recent  times.  The  wood-carved  interior 
fittings  of  the  time,  and  even  some  exterior  doorheads  and 
the  like,  are  full  of  vigorous  life,  which  shows  how  strong 
were  the  traditions  among  the  more  skilful  workmen,  and 
how  closely  those  traditions  succeed,  without  a  break,  from 
the  English  sculpture  of  the  fourteenth  century.  The 
most  important  building  of  size  and  dignity  which  was 
erected  during  those  years  is  Somerset  House,  in  London, 
fronting  on  The   Strand  and  also  on  the   Embankment. 


536 


WESTERN   EUROPE,  1665   TO    1789   A.D. 


[Chap.  IX 


Fig.  254.     London:  Somerset  House.     Vestibule.     Begun  1776  a. d. 

The  central  mass  of  the  present  great  structure  was  built 
from  the  designs  of  Sir  William  Chambers.  The  general 
character  of  the  design  is  not  different  from  that  of  a 
vast  number  of  public  buildings  erected  during  the  two 


Sec.  IV]  ENGLAND  537 

centuries  preceding  its  beginning.  A  Corinthian  order 
is  set  upon  a  rusticated  basement,  and  two  or  three  stories 
of  windows  are  put  in  between  the  columns.  Figure  254 
shows  the  entrance  vestibule  of  Somerset  House,  a  really- 
fine  work  of  its  class.  Old  Burlington  Gate,  which  men 
not  old  can  remember  as  standing  on  Piccadilly,  where  the 
Royal  Academy  now  has  its  entrance,  and  the  Royal 
Society  and  other  important  associations  are  housed,  was 
a  structure  unusually  free  and  vivacious  for  the  time.  The 
design  is  claimed  for  Colin  Campbell  and  for  Lord  Bur- 
lington himself.  Other  interesting  buildings  were  built 
under  George  III.,  but  the  external  architecture  of  the 
time  is  unhappily  identified  with  the  long  rows  of  stucco- 
fronted  houses  on  Portland  Place,  Stratford  Place,  Hamil- 
ton Place,  Mansfield  Street,  and  the  like.  The  maxims  of 
Vignola  and  Palladio  had  been  followed  almost  without 
question  by  three  generations  of  architects.  The  obedi- 
ence to  these  narrow  rules  had  been  the  ruin  of  archi- 
tecture as  a  living  art,  except  where  it  had  been  clearly 
impracticable  to  apply  them.  A  staircase  might  retain  its 
twisted  balusters  and  carved  newel,  but  the  exterior  of  the 
house  must  have  an  order  of  pilasters  with  a  basement  to 
support  them,  whether  these  forms  were  made  of  stone 
or  plaster ;  or,  failing  this,  the  front  was  not  to  be  archi- 
tecture at  all,  but  a  flat,  smooth  surface  pierced  with 
rectangular  holes. 


538  WESTERN  EUROPE,  1665  TO   1789  A.D.  [Chap.  IX 


V 

The  neo-classic  architecture  had  exhausted  all  its  com- 
binations in  Italy  before  1665.  Those  varieties  of  it 
which  Italians  could  use  had  all  been  used.  Every  pecu- 
liarity of  detail  and  of  arrangement  which  the  traditions  of 
the  Italians  and  their  natural  feeling  as  southerners  and 
heirs  of  antiquity  would  admit  had  been  tried.  The 
picturesqueness  of  German  work  of  the  sixteenth  century 
it  would  never  occur  to  an  Italian  to  try :  he  could  only 
think  it  a  foreign  thing,  not  for  him.  The  elaborate 
refinement  of  French  work,  such  as  that  of  Lescot  and 
Bullant,  fanciful  and  yet  delicate  detail  added  to  a  highly 
organized  structure,  was  not  in  his  way.  What  the  Italian 
could  do  and  would  wish  to  do  he  had  done  before  1665  : 
as  is  proved  by  the  fact  that  he  has  done  nothing  different 
since  that  time.  That  date  has  indeed  no  especial  appli- 
cation to  Italy;  it  is  fixed  for  our  present  epoch  by  the 
events  of  France  and  England :  but  even  an  earlier  date 
would  serve  to  fix  as  of  the  time  when  the  Italian  genius 
had  worked  out  every  available  form  of  neo-classic  archi- 
tecture. 

The  colossal  order  as  used  in  the  apse  of  S.  Maria 
Maggiore  of  1673,  in  the  front  of  the  Lateran  basilica  at 
Rome  of  1735,  in  the  front  of  S.  Maria  Maggiore  at  Rome 
of  1743,  and  in  S.  Barnaba  of  Venice  of  1749,  is  not  dif- 
ferent in  any  essential  way  from  the  order  and  its  use  in 
S.  Giustina  in  Venice  of  1680  or  S.  Andrea  at  Mantua  of 
1480.     The  use  of  colossi  in  the  way  of  telamones,  appar- 


Sec.  V]  ITALY  539 

ently  a  very  marked  piece  of  decadenza,  is  not  very  differ- 
ent in  the  villa  at  Stra  on  the  Brenta  of  1780,  or  in  the 
Palazzo  Durazzo-Brignole  at  Genoa  of  1 700,  from  the  use 
of  the  same  device  at  Milan  in  the  Pazzi  Palace,  a  build- 
ing ascribed  to  Leone  Leoni,  who  died  in  1585.  The 
church  of  S.  Fosca  at  Venice  is  but  a  lighter  S.  Lorenzo 
of  Florence :  though  the  Florentine  church  is  the  earliest 
of  all  renaissance  buildings  (see  p.  369),  and  the  Venetian 
one  is  of  1745.  The  Venetian  Palazzo  Grassi  of  1718,  on 
the  left  as  you  ascend  the  great  canal  (see  Fig,  255),  has 
but  the  same  disposition  of  orders  in  its  fa9ade  as  a  hun- 
dred street-fronts  of  earlier  centuries :  it  is  only  a  little 
colder  and  harder  than  work  just  two  hundred  years 
earlier  in  date.  The  same  may  be  said  of  the  Palazzo 
Flangini,  the  Palazzo  Corner  della  Regina,  the  Palazzo 
Pesaro,  —  all  on  the  same  great  waterway,  and  of  different 
dates  from  1670  to  1740.  The  rustications,  the  banded 
columns,  the  modification  of  the  entablature  of  an  order 
to  fit  a  whole  front  with  several  orders  in  its  height,  the 
decoration  of  the  window  and  door  openings  by  pediments, 
columns,  brackets,  etc.,  the  use  of  arcades  and  all  the  dif- 
ferent forms  of  arcade  that  could  be  thought  of,  —  every- 
thing, in  short,  had  been  tried  that  was  compatible  with 
the  simple  flat  wall  and  low-pitched  roof,  and  with  the 
tower  and  cupola  in  their  southern  forms. 

There  was  no  system  of  construction  peculiar  to  the 
neo-classic  art,  and  therefore  there  was  no  steady  develop- 
ment from  style  into  style,  whether  slow,  as  during  the 
Byzantino-Romanesque  epoch,  or  swift,  as  from  11 60  to 
1300,  in   France  and  the   neighbouring  lands.     Develop- 


540 


WESTERN  EUROPE,  1665  TO   1789  A.U.  [Chap.  IX 


merit  in  the  proper  sense  there  was  not:  each  able 
artist  thought  of  one  or  two  new  devices,  by  means  of 
which  the  ancient  Roman  forms  might  be  more  easily 
reconciled  to  modern   requirements.      In  fact,  there  was 


Fig.  255.     Venice,  Italy :  Palazzo  Grassi.     Begun  1705  a.d. 


Sec.  V]  ITALY  54 1 

no  moment,  after  the  first  announcement  of  a  classic 
revival  in  Florence,  about  1425,  when  all  Italian  builders 
were  working  in  a  traditional  way,  a  spontaneous  way. 
The  nearest  approach  to  it  was  the  Lombard  period,  from 
1475  to  1490  or  thereabouts,  the  time  when  S.  Maria  della 
Grazie  was  building  at  Milan,  and  the  exterior  of  the 
Scuola  di  S.  Giovanni  Evangelista  at  Venice.  Strangely 
enough,  it  is  precisely  this  one  form  of  neo-classic  which 
the  later  Italians  never  used.  The  pilaster  with  ara- 
besques in  a  sunken  panel,  the  larger  panel  of  similar 
sculpture  set  freely  in  the  wall,  the  disc  of  coloured 
marble,  the  light  porch  with  slender  columns,  the  fronton 
which  kept  no  resemblance  to  the  antique  pediment,  but 
was  high  and  open  and  filled  with  sculpture  in  relief, — 
these  and  the  like  were  avoided  by  the  later  architects. 
Except  for  such  brief  moments  as  that  one,  —  if  indeed 
there  were  other  such  moments,  —  any  Italian  architect 
felt  himself  free  to  design  according  to  his  own  notions  of 
how  the  ancient  Roman  should  be  modernized.  This 
state  of  things  lasted  for  three  hundred  years,  or  roughly 
from  1489  to  1789,  the  close  of  our  record.^  It  is  indeed' 
possible,  in  most  instances,  if  not  in  all,  to  determine  the 

1  It  was  in  so  far  a  premonition  of  nineteenth-century  work  that  each 
designer  worked  over  his  drawing-board,  making  his  own  designs  regardless, 
or  nearly  so,  of  traditional  way  of  work.  Each  man  was  an  artist,  and  elabo- 
rated his  own  work  of  art,  being  no  longer  a  master-builder  overseeing  other 
builders  in  ways  familiar  to  him  and  to  them. 

During  the  century  which  has  followed  1789,  the  Italians  have  still  been 
working  in  one  or  another  form  of  neo-classic,  and,  as  before,  in  all  forms  of  it 
at  once.  In  this  their  practice  has  been  very  different  from  the  French,  the 
Germans,  and  the  English,  who  have  been  busy  with  bold  experiments  and 
show  wide  divergencies  of  style. 


542  WESTERN  EUROPE,  1665  TO    1789  A.D.  [Chap.  IX 

age  of  a  monument  within  a  half-century,  from  its  design 
alone;  but  in  many  cases  this  is  only  possible  after  a 
somewhat  minute  study  of   its  mouldings  and  sculpture. 

Is  not  this  an  ideal  condition  of  things  ?  Is  it  not  well 
that  there  should  be  no  important  changes  toward,  and  that 
each  man  should  be  free  to  design  as  he  finds  it  easiest  and 
most  natural?  It  might  be  so  in  a  different  world  of  men; 
in  the  world  which  we  know  best,  healthy  life  has  never  been 
separated  from  growth  and  what  we  now  call  evolution. 
Painting  can  be  seen  to  be  going  on  through  regular  evo- 
lutionary changes  from  school  to  school,  from  mood  to 
mood,  from  fashion  to  fashion ;  and  painting  is  now  alive, 
a  living  and  struggling  art.  Architecture  is  not  exactly 
alive ;  as  a  fine  art  it  is  not  alive ;  what  is  doing  in  architect- 
ure cannot  be  compared,  as  to  its  fine-art  side,  with  what 
the  painters  are  doing,  or  the  sculptors,  or  those  who  are 
working  in  artistic  pottery,  or  those  who  are  making  win- 
dows of  stained  and  painted  glass.  So  far  as  we  know,  it  will 
only  be  when  the  architectural  designer  stops  copying  con- 
sciously this  or  that  style  of  past  times  that  he  will  produce 
anything  worth  having.  In  other  words,  it  is  only  when 
each  designer  feels  free  no  longer,  and  begins  to  work 
under  the  influence  of  his  neighbours  and  contemporaries, 
friendly  rivalry  and  eager  jealousy  alike  spurring  each 
man  to  vie  with  and  surpass  his  fellows,  but  always  in  the 
same  line  of  work  as  near  as  he  can  bring  it  out,  —  it  is  only 
then,  when  the  artist  is  fettered,  that  art  will  be  free. 

The  history  of  Italian  architecture  from  1665  to  1789  is 
a  history  of  repetition  and  copying,  and,  as  it  were,  a  re- 
editing  and  reissuing  of  old  texts.     Here  and  there  some- 


Sec.  V] 


ITALY 


543 


thing  very  novel  was  done,  when  a  very  novel  demand  was 
made.     Thus  the  epoch  begins  with  the  immense  porticoes 


Fig.  256.     Rome:  Colonnade  of  Piazza  San  Pietro.     Begun  1667. 

of  the  Piazza  San  Pietro  at  Rome ;  and  assuredly  the  de- 
signer of  those  colonnades  and  corridors  deserves  credit 
for  its  plan,  if  the  design  of  the  order  is  but  poor  and  me- 


544  \YESTERN   EUROPE,  1665   TO   1789   A.D.  [Chap.  IX 

chanical  (see  Fig.  256).  The  oval  place  of  S.  Peter  is 
about  six  hundred  by  nine  hundred  feet;  this  is  level  and 
is  half  surrounded  by  the  two  quadruple  colonnades,  open 
on  every  side  and  consisting  of  an  uniform  Tuscan  order. 
From  this  oval  the  ground  slopes  steeply  upward  toward 
the  entrance  porch  of  S.  Peter's  Church,  and  this  sloping 
part  of  the  place  is  contained  between  the  two  enclosed 
corridors.  Such  a  framing  in  of  the  open  space  in  front  of 
the  church  was  extremely  well  imagined  in  view  of  the 
heterogeneous  character  of  the  buildings  around  it.  Even 
the  Papal  Palace  on  the  right,  as  one  faces  the  church, 
presents  a  confused  mass  of  buildings  with  but  little  archi- 
tectural character.  Bernini's  porticoes  shut  out  all  these 
incongruous  elements  of  the  view,  and  the  very  coldness 
and  formality  of  the  design  may  be  considered  neces- 
sary in  connection  with  the  cold  and  formal  church  front 
of  Carlo  Maderno. 

A  serious  attempt  at  original  treatment  of  palace  inte- 
riors was  made  by  Vanvitelli  (van  Wittel  of  Utrecht)  in 
the  royal  palace  at  Caserta,  near  Naples.  The  chapel  is, 
indeed,  in  many  ways  an  echo  of  the  chapel  at  Versailles 
(see  p.  482);  but  we  have  seen  reason  to  think  that  the 
interior  arrangements  of  the  last  named  are  extremely  fit 
for  their  purpose,  and  such  partial  reproduction  as  is 
visible  at  Caserta  does  not  exceed  the  proprieties  of  de- 
sign. More  novel  is  the  bold  and  well-imagined  entrance- 
hall  with  corridors  leading  off  in  different  directions,  and 
opening  upon  courts  and  gardens.  Originality  there  is  ; 
but  good  taste,  restraint,  a  perfect  understanding  of  the 
style,  there  are  not.     Good  taste  and  a  strong  sense  of  the 


Sec.  V]  ITALY  545 

proprieties  of  the  style  chosen  are  precisely  what  the  epoch 
lacks. 

The  villa  Belgiojoso,  on  the  south  side  of  the  Public 
Gardens  at  Milan,  and  occupied  since  the  Napoleonic 
conquest  as  a  palace  for  the  sovereign  and  his  family,  was 
erected  about  1790  by  Leopold  PoUak  or  Polack.  In  this 
building  there  is  seen  some  of  that  return  to  simpler  early 
forms  which  constitutes  what  is  called  the  reaction  against 
the  Barocco.  This  tendency  is,  of  course,  akin  to  that 
love  of  simpler  forms  which,  in  France,  is  characteristic 
of  the  epoch  of  Louis  XVL  Neither  in  France  nor  in 
Italy,  however,  can  the  chronological  limits  be  determined 
with  any  certainty.  The  characteristic  of  the  time  is  lack 
of  refinement ;  and  this  is  shown  alike  in  clumsiness  of 
general  design  and  in  excess  and  vulgarity  of  detail.  This 
lack  of  refinement,  indeed,  never  reached  in  France  very 
great  extravagance,  at  least  in  exterior  design,  but  still  the 
reaction  under  Servandony  and  his  followers  (see  p.  493) 
is  very  visible.  In  Italy  there  really  was  a  reign  of  bad 
taste,  against  which  there  was  reason  enough  to  rebel. 
The  villa  Belgiojoso,  though  late  and  corrupt  in  the  details 
of  the  order,  and  with  little  merit  in  the  sculpture,  is  of 
large  and  dignified  design  in  its  general  masses.  The 
front  is  divided,  as  regards  its  extreme  width,  into  seven- 
teen bays:  of  these,  five  bays  form  the  central  pavilion 
with  projection  only  sufficient  to  introduce  a  single 
additional  column  in  the  return  wall,  and  at  each  end 
three  bays  form  an  end  pavilion  with  a  pediment  and 
with  a  projection  equal  to  one  bay.  The  whole  front, 
pavilions,    recesses,  and    returns   alike,  is    made   up   of   a 


546  WESTERN  EUROPE,  1665  TO    1789  A.D.  [Chap.  IX 

colossal    order   of   two  stories   resting  upon   a  rusticated 
basement. 

The  eighteenth  century  was  not,  however,  a  time  of 
artistic  excellence  in  Italy.  Churches,  as  well  as  private 
and  civic  buildings  of  this  epoch,  exist  in  sufficient  num- 
ber, but  they  have  little  value  for  the  student,  being 
almost  universally  the  repetition  of  old  thoughts  and  old 
conceptions  which  had  done  their  proper  work  long 
before. 


GLOSSARY 


Abacus  (pi.  Abaci).  —  The  upper- 
most member  of  a  capital.  In  Grecian 
Doric  it  is  a  plain  square  slab;  in  all  other 
orders  and  styles  it  tends  to  be  more  or 
less  ornamental.     See  Fig.  lo. 

Agora.  —  In  Greek  cities;  an  open 
place,  often  the  market-place.  It  corre- 
sponds nearly  to  the  Forum  in  an  ancient 
Italian  town. 

Aisle.  —  In  a  basilica  or  a  church  of 
the  middle  ages  or  of  more  recent  times, 
one  of  the  side  divisions,  as  distinguished 
from  the  middle  division,  which  is  usually 
wider  and  higher.  In  a  cruciform  church 
the  nave,  the  choir,  and  the  transept 
may  have  each  its  own  aisles.  In  some 
churches  there  are  two  aisles  on  each  side 
of  the  high  middle  part,  and  in  a  very  few 
there  are  three  aisles  on  each  side,  as  in 
Antwerp  Cathedral;  see  Fig.  157.  In  a 
few  small  churches,  there  is  an  aisle  on 
one  side  of  the  nave  only.  Cf.  Choir, 
Clear-story,  Nave,  Transept,  and  see  the 
plans  and  sections  of  churches  in  Chaps. 
III.  to  VII.  In  a  round  church  the 
outer  and  lower  division  encircling  the 
high  central  part  is  considered  the  aisle. 
See  Figs.  61,  62,  63,  and  70. 

Ambulatory.  — A  passage-way  for  foot 
passengers,  usually  covered  and  enclosed; 
especially  when  architectural  in  character 
and  forming  part  of  a  building. 

Amphlprostyle.  —  Prostyle  at  each 
end  ;  said  especially  of  a  Greek  or  Roman 
temple.     See  Fig.  6. 

Annular  Vault.  —  See  Vault. 


Annulet. — A  small  moulding;  espe- 
cially in  Grecian  Doric,  one  of  several  pro- 
jecting mouldings  at  the  base  of  the  echinus. 
See  Figs.  11  and  12. 

Anta  (pi.  Antae).  — A  solid  pier  built 
at  the  end  of  a  wall  to  give  it  stiffness.  In 
Greek  and  Roman  architecture  it  is  gener- 
ally treated  as  a  pilaster.     See  Fig.  8. 

Anthemion.  —  An  ornament  formed 
like  a  group  of  flowers,  leaves,  or  the  like, 
springing  from  a  common  point  or  from  a 
short  stem,  and  generally  formal  and  sym- 
metrical, so  that  an  elliptical  or  similar 
curve  would  bound  it.  The  most  familiar 
instance  is  the  honeysuckle  or  palmette 
ornament  used  in  the  Corinthian  Ionic 
styles. 

Antis,  In. — Between  antae;  said  of 
columns  or  of  a  portico,  and  by  extension, 
of  the  whole  porch  or  vestibule  to  which 
such  columns  belong.  Thus,  in  Fig.  6,  the 
two  porticoes  are  distyle  in  antis. 

Aphrodite.  —  In  Grecian  mythology 
the  goddess  of  love  and  beauty.  The 
Italian  deity  Venus  was  identified  with 
Aphrodite  by  the  later  Roman  writers. 
Thus  in  Homer,  Aphrodite  is  the  mother 
of  Aineias;  and  Virgil,  while  latinizing 
the  latter  name  as  Aeneas,  calls  the  hero 
the  son  of  Venus. 

Apollo.  —  In  Grecian  mythology  the 
god  of  poetry  and  song,  also  of  healing, 
and  often  identified  with  the  sun.  The 
Romans  took  this  deity  into  their  Pantheon 
without  trying  to  identify  him  with  any 
Italian  god. 


547 


548 


GLOSSARY 


Apse. — A  projecting  room  or  wing  of 
a  building  having  its  plan  rounded  or 
polygonal  at  the  outer  end.  In  the  early 
Christian  churches  an  apse  at  one  end 
generally  contained  the  bishop's  throne 
and  the  seats  of  the  clergy,  and  sometimes 
the  high  altar.  In  later  churches  the  apse 
is  a  mere  curved  ending  of  the  choir,  not 
often  used  in  England  but  commonly  on 
the  continent.  Some  churches  have  several 
apses.  See  Figs.  33,  34,  55,  58,  and  60. 
Cf.  Triapsidal. 

Apsidiole. — A  small  apse;  especially 
an  apse  projecting  from  a  larger  one,  as 
where  chapels  project  from  the  larger  apse 
of  the  choir.     See  Fig.  76. 

ApteroB. — Without  wings;  said  of  a 
personage  to  whom  wings  are  generally 
ascribed.  Nike  Apteros,  the  wingless 
Victory  of  the  Greeks,  perhaps  to  be 
identified  with  the  goddess  Athene,  when 
appearing  as  a  personification  of  Victory. 

Arabesque.  —  A  piece  of  decorative 
scroll-work  or  other  ornament  not  closely 
studied  from  nature.  Although  the  term 
is  taken  from  Arabian,  that  is,  Eastern 
ornament,  it  is  applied  generally  to  work 
of  European  design.  Varieties  of  Ara- 
besque are  seen  in  Figs.  194  and  195. 

Arcade. — Two  or  more  arches  with 
their  imposts,  spandrels,  etc.,  taken  to- 
gether.    See  Figs.  49,  97,  98,  and  102. 

Arch.  —  Properly  a  method  of  spanning 
an  opening  by  means  of  heavy  wedge- 
shaped  solids  which  mutually  keep  one 
another  in  place.  The  shape  is  indifferent; 
thus,  in  Plate  X.,  the  uppermost  figure  is 
as  much  an  arch  as  any  of  the  others.  In 
the  practice  of  masonry  it  often  happens 
that  an  arch  is  built  with  such  strong  and 
adhesive  mortar  that  the  whole  becomes  a 
solid  bar  or  thick  plate,  and  loses  its  true 
character  as  an  arch. 

Architrave. — In  classical  architecture, 
the  lowermost  division  of  an  entablature, 
the    epistyle.     See   Figs.   9,    10,   and    15. 


Hence,  because  this  lowermost  division  is 
supposed  to  be  carried  along  the  upright 
sides  as  well  as  the  top  of  a  square  open- 
ing, any  moulded  or  otherwise  ornamented 
band  carried  around  a  door,  window,  or 
the  like,  on  the  wall  face,  or  projecting 
from  it.     See  Figs.  218  and  243. 

Archivolt.  — An  architrave  modified 
by  being  carried  around  a  curved  opening 
instead  of  a  rectangular  one.  See  Plate 
X.,  where  A,  A  denotes  the  archivolts  of 
three  forms  of  arches. 

Arris.  —  A  sharp  edge  made  by  two  sur- 
faces meeting  so  as  to  form  a  solid  angle. 

Arsinoeion.  —  A  building  dedicated  to 
or  associated  with  a  person  named  Arsinoe; 
especially  the  round  building  in  Samo- 
thrace,  associated  with  the  princess,  daugh- 
ter of  Ptolemy  I.  of  Egypt.     See  Fig.  24. 

Artemis.  — The  Greek  goddess  of  chas- 
tity and  hunting;  also  of  the  birth  of  chil- 
dren; confused  with  the  goddess  of  the 
moon,  and  also  with  the  goddess  of  the  life 
after  death.  She  is  the  sister  of  Apollo. 
The  Latin  writers  find  her  characteristics 
in  their  Diana. 

Athena  or  Athene.  —  Goddess  of  wis- 
dom, refined  arts  and  studies,  and  scientific 
warfare.  The  special  patroness  of  Athens, 
as  the  Greek  name  of  the  city,  Athenai, 
shows.  The  Latin  writers  find  her  char- 
acteristics in  their  Minerva. 

Athena  Nike.  —  See  Nike  and  Apteros. 

Athena  Polias. —  Athena  considered 
as  the  protectress  of  the  city. 

Atlantes  (pi.) .  —  Figures  of  men  used 
as  supports  or  apparent  supports.  Cf.  Car- 
yatid. 

Atrium.  —  In  Roman  building  the  prin- 
cipal room  of  an  early  and  simple  house. 
In  more  elaborate  dwellings  a  small  court, 
only  partially  roofed,  the  rain  upon  which 
fell  through  the  opening  in  the  middle. 

Attic.  —  Something  built  above  the 
wall-cornice;  a  low  story  with  windows,  or 
a  mere  blank  wall,  but  not  a  pierced  or 


^RCH 


"•"HREF      D^-^'-'-°c\  AR 


ARCHES 


•TILTED 
ARCH 


jTWO    'CUSPED 
Af\CHES 


EF?AL  ACUTE  0;\  LANCET 

THREE      POINTED  1  ARCHES         II 


THREE  CENTRED iO,R 
BASKET-HANDLE  Af\CH 


WITH  (lEVEfl5ED'      | 

CUflVEATPOlMT 


TWO  'TAUAN 
OE  THE  f-    ^^^^ 


Plate  X.     Illustrations  of  term  "  Arch  "  in  Glossary. 


GLOSSARY 


549 


open  parapet.  The  design  of  a  front  is 
supposed  to  be  complete  without  the  attic, 
this  being  often  added  to  form  the  front 
of  rooms  which  could  not  be  introduced 
otherwise.     See  Fig.  232. 

Axis.  —  An  imaginary  line  about  which 
anything  is  supposed  to  be  distributed,  or  a 
number  of  things  arranged.  Thus  the  axis 
of  a  bay  is  the  middle  line  of  it,  all  on  one 
side  of  this  line  being  supposed  to  be  simi- 
lar to  that  which  is  on  the  other  side.  Thus 
the  nave  and  choir  of  a  church  are  gener- 
ally on  the  same  axis,  but  Fig.  160  offers 
an  exception. 

Baldachino.  —  A  canopy  supported  on 
pillars,  as  over  an  altar.     See  Fig.  60. 

Barocque.  —  In  decoration,  irregular; 
unrestrained;  in' bad  taste  because  exces- 
sive. 

Barocco.  —  This  is  the  Italian  form  of 
Barocque,  which  see. 

Barrel  Vaxilt.  —  See  Vault. 

Base.  —  (a)  The  lowermost  part  of  a 
column.  See  Figs.  15  and  18.  (d)  The 
lowermost  part  of  a  wall  when  treated  in 
an  architectural  manner  so  as  to  differ  from 
the  rest  of  the  wall  and  when  smaller  than 
the  basement.  Thus,  in  Figs.  218  and 
230,  the  lowermost  course  of  stone  in  the 
wall  may  be  considered  as  the  base.  Cf. 
Basement. 

Basement. — The  lowest  large  archi- 
tectural member  of  a  wall,  especially  of  the 
outer  wall  of  a  building.  The  basement 
differs  from  the  base  in  being  a  much  larger 
part  of  the  wall,  perhaps  even  a  whole 
story.  Thus,  in  Figs.  218  and  230,  the 
whole  wall  up  to  the  beginning  of  the  order 
of  pilasters  may  be  considered  as  the  base- 
ment.    Cf.  Base. 

Basilica.  —  Under  the  Roman  Empire 
a  public  building  used  for  many  purposes. 
See  Ch.  II.  In  early  Christian  architecture 
a  church  of  simple  form  derived  from  the 
above  (see  Chs.  III.  and  IV.).  See  Figs. 
34,  59,  and  60. 


Bas-relief.  —  See  Relief. 

Bastide.  —  In  French  building  in  the 
middle  ages,  a  town  erected  by  special 
order  and  according  to  a  settled  plan. 
Twenty-five  of  these  are  named  by  Viollet- 
le-Duc  in  his  Dictionnaire,  s.v.  Maison. 

Bay. — One  of  the  larger  similar  divi- 
sions of  a  building.  It  is  usually  taken  as 
extending  from  the  axis  of  one  of  the  main 
supports  to  the  axis  of  the  next.  Thus 
Fig.  92  gives  two  full  bays  of  the  nave, 
comprising  four  of  the  aisles,  and  Figs.  91 
and  94  give  one  bay  of  the  nave,  compris- 
ing two  of  the  aisles.  Figs.  141,  143,  and 
164  give  one  bay  each. 

Bell. — That  part  of  the  capital  of  a 
column  which  is  within  the  leafage  or  other 
sculptured  ornament.  Thus,  in  Fig.  21,  the 
bell  is  the  smooth  rounded  part  from  which 
the  ornament  projects.  In  the  Doric  order 
the  bell  has  no  echinus  and  has  no  orna- 
ment.    See  Fig.  11. 

Boss. —  A  small  projecting  member,  usu- 
ally intended  for  ornament  alone,  and  serv- 
ing as  the  termination  of  a  string  course,  a 
hood  moulding,  or  the  like.  In  Figs.  128 
and  164  A,  bosses  can  be  seen  in  the  shape 
of  human  heads,  while  in  Fig.  164  they 
are  in  the  shape  of  the  upper  part  of  the 
human  figure. 

Brace.  —  In  carpenter- work  a  piece  of 
wood  set  diagonally  to  stiffen  a  frame. 
See  Figs.  185  and  219. 

Bracket.  —  Any  projecting  member 
meant  to  carry  a  weight.  The  term  is 
used  very  loosely. 

Bull's-eye. — A  circular  or  oval  win- 
dow of  small  size,  usually  forming  a  deco- 
rative part  of  an  architectural  composition. 
See  Figs.  245,  246,  247,  and  248. 

Buttress.  —  A  piece  of  walling  used  to 
resist  the  thrust  of  arches  or  vaults.  The 
use  of  the  buttress  became  so  marked  a 
feature  in  the  exterior  of  Gothic  building 
that  buttresses  are  constantly  built  where 
no  need  for  them  exists.      See  plans  and 


550 


GLOSSARY 


views  of  churches  in  Chs.  V.,  VI.,  and  VII. 
See  especially  Figs.  115,  122  and  145. 

Buttress-pier.  —  That  part  of  a  but- 
tress which  is  carried  up  above  the  wall,  of 
which  it  forms  part  below.  Rising  in  this 
way  clear  of  the  roof,  it  receives  a  flying 
buttress,  or  serves  to  weight  and  steady  the 
buttress  below.  See  Plate  III.  and  Figs. 
116  and  117. 

Caldarium.  —  In  a  Roman  building,  the 
hot  chamber  of  a  bathing  establishment. 

Campanile.  —  In  Italian  architecture 
of  any  period,  since  the  fall  of  the  Roman 
Empire,  a  bell-tower.     See  Fig.  142. 

Candelabrum  (pi.  -bra) .  Originally  a 
lamp-stand ;  in  Greek  and  Roman  art,  these 
were  treated  in  a  highly  decorated  way. 
By  extension,  a  decorative  composition, 
like  the  carving  on  the  face  of  a  pilaster; 
a  design  in  which  the  main  lines  are  verti- 
cal. 

Canopy.  —  A  member  used  to  form  a 
small  roof  or  semblance  of  roof,  as  in  a 
Gothic  niche,  which  see.  Also,  a  roof  built 
or  suspended  over  an  altar,  dais,  or  the  like, 
as  an  honorary  and  ornamental  feature. 
See  Fig.  126,  the  arched  canopies  over  the 
largest  statues.  See  the  top  of  the  balda- 
chino  in  Fig.  60. 

Capital.  —  The  uppermost  of  the  three 
principal  divisions  of  a  column.  It  is 
divided  into  abacus,  bell  and  necking. 

Cartouche.  —  An  ornamental  tablet  or 
panel,  prepared  to  receive  an  inscription 
or  the  like.  Heraldic  escutcheons  which 
are  not  of  shield-shape,  but  oval  or  irregu- 
lar, are  called  by  this  name.  See  Fig.  235, 
on  each  side  of  the  portico  with  pediment. 
See  also  Fig.  255. 

Caryatid  (pi.  Caryatides) .  —  A 
draped  female  figure,  used  as  a  support, 
or  apparent  support,  as  replacing  a  column. 
Cf.  Atlantes  and  Telamones.     See  Fig.  25. 

Cella.  —  Same  as  Naos.  Cella  is  the 
Latin  word,  and  is  properly  applied  to  the 
Roman  temples. 


Centre.  —  (a)  Same  as  centring.  (3) 
A  small  or  partial  structure,  sometimes  a 
mere  guiding  curve,  as  of  plank  used  in 
the  construction  of  arches  and  vaults.  See 
Centring. 

Centring.  —  A  structure,  generally  tem- 
porary, put  up  to  receive  masonry,  such  as 
a  vault,  and  to  support  it  until  complete. 

Channel. — A  groove;  especially  one 
of  those  cut  upon  the  shaft  of  a  Greek 
or  Doric  column.  They  are  generally 
elliptical,  or  at  least  not  circular  in  sec- 
tion, and  are  separated  from  one  another 
only  by  an  arris. 

Channelled.  —  Grooved  with  channels, 
as  distinguished  horn  Jltiied. 

Chapter-house.  —  In  English  ecclesi- 
astical architecture,  a  large  room  for  the 
meeting  of  the  chapter,  forming  an  ad- 
junct to  a  cathedral. 

Chevet.  —  In  French  architectural  lan- 
guage, the  choir-end  or  chancel-end  of  a 
church;  especially  applied  to  the  rounded 
eastern  ends  of  large  churches.  In  Fig. 
144,  it  is  the  large  semicircular  east  end 
of  the  church,  from  which  the  chapels 
project. 

Choir.  —  Originally,  the  space  reserved 
in  a  church  for  the  clergy  and  others  who 
conduct  divine  service.  In  Fig.  60  the 
outer  and  nearer  part  is  called  the  choir; 
the  part  within,  where  the  high  altar  and 
the  baldachino  are,  is  properly  the  sanc- 
tuary. By  extension,  that  part  of  a  large 
church  in  which  the  choir  is  situated; 
especially,  in  a  cruciform  church,  the  main 
division  farthest  from  the  principal  en- 
trance and  beyond  the  transept.  In  F"igs. 
120  and  144,  all  east  of  the  transept  would 
be  called  the  choir. 

Choir-screen.  —  The  wall,  arcade  or 
grating  which  separates  the  choir  proper 
from  the  rest  of  the  church.  In  Fig.  60, 
the  wall  is  too  low  to  be  called  a  choir- 
screen;  the  jube  (which  see)  is  that  part 
of  the  choir-screen  which  faces  the  nave. 


GLOSSARY 


551 


Choragic.  —  Having  to  do  with  a  cho- 
ragos,  or  director  of  an  Athenian  chorus, 
as  in  the  festivals  of  Dionysos.  Choragic 
monument :  a  structure  put  up  to  com- 
memorate the  service  of  a  choragos.  There 
were  many  such  in  Athens,  and  it  was  usual 
to  set  upon  the  top  the  bronze  tripod  awarded 
the  choragos  of  the  year.  See  Figs.  19  and 
20. 

Ciborium.  —  In  Italian  architecture,  a 
canopy  or  roof  on  pillars,  especially  over 
an  altar.     See  Baldachino. 

Cimborio.  —  In  Spanish  architecture, 
a  cupola  or  canopy;  the  Spanish  form  for 
ciborium. 

Cinque-cento.  —  The  sixteenth  cen- 
tury considered  as  a  time  of  development 
in  Italian  art.  The  word  is  used  also  as 
an  adjective,  as  cinque-cento  design. 

Cit^.  —  In  French  archaeology,  a  sepa- 
rate and  especially  a  fortified  part  of  a  town ; 
usually  the  more  ancient  part  of  the  town, 
that  which  contains  the  cathedral  or  prin- 
cipal church. 

Clear-story.  —  A  raised  part  of  a 
building  having  windows  in  its  sides  above 
the  lower  roofs.  It  differs  from  a  lantern 
in  being  long,  with  parallel  sides  as  form- 
ing a  considerable  part  of  the  main  struct- 
ure. Thus  in  Figs.  73  and  95,  the  upper- 
most windows  are  those  of  the  clear-story. 
See,  also.  Figs.  118  and  132. 

Cloister.  —  (a)  A  covered  ambulatory; 
usually  carried  along  the  sides  of  a  square 
court.  (J))  By  extension,  the  whole  court, 
of  which  the  open  part  is  called  the  Cloister- 
garth. 

Coffering.  —  Ornamentation  of  a  ceil- 
ing, or  of  the  soffit  of  an  arch,  by  means  of 
recessed  panels.     See  Fig.  28. 

Collar-beam.  —  A  piece  of  timber  used 
as  a  tie,  crossing  the  truss  of  a  roof, 
horizontally,  at  a  higher  level  than  the 
feet  of  the  rafters,  Cf.  Tie-beam.  See 
Fig.  166  A. 

Colonnade.  —  A  row  of  columns  with 


the  stylobate  they  rest  upon,  and  the  en- 
tablature they  support. 

Colonnette.  —  A  very  small  column, 
as  one  of  a  cluster  forming  a  pier,  or  part 
of  a  screen  or  tomb  or  piece  of  furniture. 
Thus  in  Fig.  130  there  are  two  colon- 
nettes. 

Column.  —  An  upright,  supporting 
member,  usually  cylindrical  for  the  greater 
part  of  its  length.  It  is  divided  into  the 
three  parts :  capital,  shaft  and  base,  which 
see. 

Composite  Order. — In  architecture 
of  the  Roman  Empire  a  variety  of  the 
Corinthian  order.     See  Fig.  50. 

Concordia. — A  Roman  goddess,  a 
personification  of  friendly  intercourse  and 
mutual  agreement,  as  between  the  patri- 
cians and  plebeians.  The  name,  when 
given  to  a  Greek  temple  (as  at  Akragas, 
see  Ch.  I.),  is  of  course  erroneous. 

Concrete.  —  An  artificial  stone  made 
of  small  pieces  of  stone,  brick,  or  the  like, 
mixed  with  strong  cement  mortar  in  great 
comparative  quantity.  The  mortar,  indeed, 
forms  the  chief  part  of  the  mass,  and  holds 
the  stones,  etc.,  imbedded  in  it. 

Console.  —  An  ornamental  detail  like 
a  corbel,  and  having  a  projection  as  if  to 
carry  a  weight.  It  is  used  especially  in 
the  classical  and  neo-classical  styles.  The 
French  use  the  term  much  more  freely, 
and  such  expressions  as  console-table  have 
been  adopted  in  English. 

Coping.  — The  covering  of  a  masonry 
wall  at  top  to  protect  it  against  the  weather, 
as  by  a  row  of  stones  each  wider  than  the 
wall. 

Corbel. — A  projecting  member  of  stone 
or  brick  work,  or  the  like,  forming  a  solid 
part  of  a  wall  or  pier,  and  arranged  to 
carry  a  superincumbent  weight.  The  cor- 
responding French  term,  corbeau,  is  lim- 
ited to  a  member  whose  sides  are  parallel, 
whereas  cul-de-lainpe  is  used  for  one  semi- 
circular or  polygonal  in  plan.     It  would  be 


552 


GLOSSARY 


well  if  this  distinction  were  maintained  in 
English. 

To  corbel  out. — To  build,  as  with 
bricks,  in  course,  each  course  projecting 
horizontally  beyond  the  one  which  sup- 
ports it. 

Corinthian  Order.  — The  richest  of 
the  three  Grecian  orders,  adopted  by  the  Ro- 
mans as  their  favourite  decorative  system. 

Cornice.  —  (a)  In  Greek  and  Roman 
art,  the  uppermost  of  the  three  members 
of  an  entablature,  which  see.  {J))  The 
coping  of  a  wall  when  made  to  project 
considerably  beyond  the  face  of  the  wall, 
and  made  into  a  decorative  feature.  In 
sense  {F)  often  called  ivall-cornice.  See 
Fig.  164,  the  horizontal  member  below  the 
pierced  parapet,  and  the  sculptured  corbels 
which  support  it. 

Cortile.  —  In  Italian  architecture  the 
large,  square  or  nearly  square  court  of  a 
civic  or  domestic  building. 

Course.  —  One  horizontal  row  or  layer, 
as  of  stones  or  bricks,  in  a  wall  or  pier. 

Cove.  —  A  moulding  of  hollow  or  con- 
cave section. 

Cradle  Vault.  —  Same  as  Barrel  Vault. 
See  Vault. 

Cramp.  —  A  piece  of  metal  used  to 
hold  together  blocks  of  stone  in  a  wall; 
commonly  a  sort  of  bar  bent  at  each  end 
like  a  hook. 

Cro'wnedup.  —  Rounded  upward,  (a) 
On  the  upper  surface  alone,  as  of  a  deck  or 
a  road.  {F)  Of  the  under  surface  only,  as 
of  a  ceiling,  {c)  In  the  whole  mass,  as 
when  a  timber  laid  horizontally  is  selected 
or  shaped  so  as  to  have  a  slight  upward 
curve. 

Cupola.  —  A  vault  of  the  general  form 
of  a  cup.  Hence,  by  extension,  a  rounded 
or  bulging  roof,  whether  high  and  of  great 
projection  or  low  and  flat. 

Cusp.  —  A  pointed  projection  from  the 
inner  edge  or  surface  of  an  arch,  its  edges 
being  usually  curved,  and  seeming  to  grow 


out  of  the  main  arch  insensibly.  The 
cusps  are  the  ornamental  features  of  Gothic 
tracery,  as  in  Figs.  1 24  and  1 70. 

Cusped.  —  Furnished  with  cusps,  as  an 
arch  or  arched  opening. 

Dado.  —  The  lower  part  of  the  wall, 
generally  of  a  room  or  a  hall,  when  treated 
as  a  separate  architectural  member. 

Decastyle  {Dekas(yle).  —  Having  ten 
columns  in  front;   as  a  portico  or  temple. 

Demeter.  —  In  Grecian  mythology,  the 
goddess  of  plants,  especially  of  plants  use- 
ful to  man,  as  of  grain  and  the  like,  and 
of  the  fertility  of  the  earth.  The  later 
Roman  writers  applied  the  Greek  stories 
of  Demeter  to  the  Italian  goddess  Ceres. 

Dentil.  —  One  of  the  small,  square- 
edged,  solid  projections  which,  separated 
by  vacant  spaces  of  about  their  own  width, 
form  a  common  ornament  in  classical  en- 
tablatures, string-courses,  etc. 

Dentil-course.  —  A  row  or  series  of 
dentils,  as  if  a  square-edged  moulding  had 
had  pieces  cut  out  of  it,  leaving  small,  sepa- 
rate, rectangular  blocks. 

Dionysos.  —  In  Grecian  mythology,  a 
god  worshipped  in  many  capacities,  but 
especially  as  the  patron  of  wine  and  of  the 
drama,  which  was  peculiarly  sacred  to 
him.  The  later  Greek  poets  called  him 
Bacchos,  which,  in  its  Latinized  form 
Bacchus,  became  the  Latin  name  under 
which  he  was  known. 

Dipteral.  —  Having  a  double  row  of 
columns;  especially  said  of  a  temple  hav- 
ing two  rows  of  columns  outside  the  naos 
or  cella. 

Distyle.  —  Having  two  columns  in 
front;  said  of  a  portico  or  temple.  See 
Fig.  6,  and  the  inner  porticoes  of  Fig.  i. 
Distyle  in  antis,  see  Antis. 

Dodecastyle  {Dodekastyle) .  —  Hav- 
ing twelve  columns  in  front,  as  of  a  portico 
or  temple. 

Dome.  —  Same  as  Cupola. 

Doric  Order.  —  (a)  The  most  impor- 


GLOSSARY 


553 


tant  order  of  Grecian  architecture  (see 
Ch.  I.  Sec.  I.),  (3)  An  order  developed 
by  the  Romans  partly  from  Greek,  partly 
from  Etruscan  models;  its  resemblance  to 
Grecian  Doric  is  slight,  and  the  name  of 
questionable  propriety. 

Dormer-'window.  —  A  window  built 
up'  from  a  sloping  roof  with  sides  and  roof 
of  its  own;  the  name  being  applied  to  the 
whole  structure,  like  a  small  house  resting 
on  the  slope  of  the  larger  roof.  See  Figs. 
184  and  207. 

Drip-moulding.  —  A  moulding  or 
group  of  mouldings  undercut  in  such  a 
way  as  to  cause  rainwater  to  drip  from 
it  instead  of  running  down  the  surface. 

Drum.  —  (a)  The  cylindrical  or  polyg- 
onal wall  carrying  a  cupola  or  dome. 
((5)  One  of  several  cylindrical  blocks  of 
stone  which  make  up  the  shaft  of  a 
column. 

East  End.  —  See  Orientation. 

Echinus.  —  (a)  The  bell  of  the  Gre- 
cian Doric  capital,  so  called  from  its  sec- 
tional curve,  which  is  supposed  to  resemble 
that  of  the  sea-urchin,  (^d)  In  Roman 
Doric  and  in  some  forms  of  Roman  Ionic 
the  moulding  forming  the  principal  part 
of  the  bell  of  the  capital,  commonly 
sculptured  with  a  simple  ornament. 

Echinus  Ornament.  —  Same  as  Egg- 
and-dart  Ornament.  So  called  because 
used  to  decorate  the  echinus  of  the  Roman 
Doric  order. 

Egg-and-dart  Ornament.  In  Greek 
art  and  the  styles  based  upon  it,  a  sim- 
ple ornament  consisting  of  small  egg-like 
bosses,  each  surrounded  by  a  groove  and 
ridge,  and  alternating  with  a  sharp-pointed 
feature,  like  an  arrow-head,  intended  to 
give  contrast. 

Elevation.  —  In  architectural  drawing 
the  vertical  projection  according  to  de- 
scriptive geometry  of  a  building  or  any 
part  of  it;  especially  of  the  exterior  as 
distinguished  from  the  section. 


Elizabethan  Style. —  The  style  pre- 
vailing in  England  from  about  1550  to 
1610,  and,  therefore,  nearly  contemporary 
with  the  later  French  Renaissance.  See 
Ch.  VIII.  Sec.  IV. 

Engaged  Column.  —  (a)  A  column 
of  which  only  a  part,  three  quarters  or 
less,  is  left  free  from  a  wall  or  pier  against 
which  it  is  set.  See  Fig.  42.  (d)  An 
architectural  feature  resembling  a  column, 
but  built  with  the  wall  in  courses  of  stone 
or  brick ;  compare  Roman  order,  and  see 
Fig.  44. 

Entablature.  —  In  Grecian  and  Roman 
art  and  in  the  later  classic  styles,  the  whole 
mass  of  building  which  rests,  like  a  low 
wall,  upon  the  columns  or  pilasters,  and 
forms  the  uppermost  part  of  the  order. 
It  is  always  assumed  to  be  made  up  of 
three  parts,  architrave  or  epistyle,  frieze 
and  cornice.  In  a  very  few  ancient  build- 
ings there  are  fewer  than  three  parts: 
thus  in  the  Caryatid  portico.  Fig.  25, 
there  is  no  frieze. 

Entasis.  —  The  slight  convex  curve  of 
the  upright  lines  of  a  shaft,  as  in  classical 
architecture.  It  is  most  noticeable  in  the 
Grecian  Doric  style,  its  purpose  being  to 
prevent  the  natural  tendency  of  a  true 
conical  form  to  seem  a  little  hollow.  See 
Fig.  9. 

Epinaos.  —  Same  as  Opisthodomos  in 
its  first  sense ;  and  same  as  Posticum. 
Where  opisthodomos  is  used  for  an  en- 
closed chamber,  epinaos  would  be  the 
correct  term  for  the  porch  beyond  it. 

Epistyle.  —  Same  as  Architrave. 

Erechtheus.  —  An  early  hero  of  Attic 
legend,  to  whom,  as  to  Theseus,  divine 
honours  were  paid  in  Athens. 

Eye.  —  See  Oculus. 

Fagade.  —  The  front  of  any  building 
which  is  so  designed  as  to  have  a  front 
especially  distinguished  from  its  other 
parts.  Thus  a  Greek  temple  or  a  thir- 
teenth-century church  has  no  facade,  but 


554 


GLOSSARY 


a  modern  house  fronting  on  a  street  has 
generally  a  facade  and  no  other  architect- 
urally treated  parts. 

Fan  Vault.  —  See  Vault. 

Fillet. — A  narrow  flat  moulding. 

Finial.  —  The  ornamental  boss  or  floral 
ornament  which  forms  the  top  of  a  spire, 
gable  or  pinnacle,  or  which  crowns  a  win- 
dow where,  as  in  the  later  Gothic,  the  arch 
ends  in  a  reversed  curve.  See  Figs.  124  and 
158. 

Flamboyant,  —  Having  window-tra- 
cery disposed  in  patterns  not  strictly  geo- 
metrical, but  in  elongated  and  pointed 
curves  supposed  to  resemble  flames.  The 
term  is  applied  by  English  writers  to  the 
French  Gothic  of  the  fifteenth  century, 
but  is  rarely  used  in  French.  See  Figs. 
174  and  180. 

Flute.  —  One  of  the  grooves  in  an  Ionic 
or  Corinthian  column;  or  generally  of  any 
column  except  the  Grecian  Doric.  Flutes 
are  generally  circular  in  section,  and  are 
separated  from  one  another  by  narrow 
fillets.     Cf.  Channel. 

Fluted.  —  Grooved  with  flutes,  as  dis- 
tinguished from  channels. 

Flying  Buttress.  —  An  arrangement 
for  transmitting  the  thrust  of  a  vault 
across  a  space  to  a  buttress  or  buttress- 
pier  beyond.  See  Ch.  V.  Sec.  I.,  and 
Figs.  116  and  117. 

Foliated.  —  Parted  into  leaves  or  leaf- 
like divisions ;  said  of  ornament. 

Forum.  —  The  Latin  term  for  an  open 
place  in  a  town,  the  place  of  popular 
assembly,  and  often  the  chief  market- 
place. 

Frieze.  —  The  second,  or  middle  part, 
of  an  entablature;  hence,  by  extension, 
any  horizontal  band  serving  an  ornamental 
purpose,  especially  if  rich,  as  a  band  of 
sculpture  in  relief. 

Fronton.  —  A  modification  of  the  pedi- 
ment used  above  a  door  or  window,  and 
either  gable-shaped  or  rounded  or  irreg- 


ular, and   broken   in   outline.     See   Figs. 
207,  213,  218,  230  and  240. 

Gable.  —  In  a  building  with  a  double- 
pitched  roof,  a  piece  of  wall  which  closes 
the  end  of  the  roof,  and  is  therefore  gen- 
erally triangular.  By  extension  a  triangu- 
lar piece  of  wall  or  ornamental  semblance 
of  wall,  which  rises  above  a  doorway  or 
window.  The  pediment  of  a  Greek  temple 
is  a  low  or  blunt  gable,  resulting  from  a 
low  double-pitched  roof. 

Galilee.  —  In  English  building,  an 
adjunct  or  extension  to  a  church;  some- 
times a  chapel,  more  often  an  outer  room 
or  porch.  Only  six,  or  possibly  seven, 
rooms  now  existing  are  known  by  that 
name. 

Gargoyle.  —  In  mediaeval  architecture, 
a  spout  for  throwing  off  rainwater  from 
the  roofs,  etc.;  generally  of  stone,  and 
often  carved  into  some  grotesque  animal 
or  human  form.     See  Figs,  175  and  176. 

Gorgerin.  —  The  necking,  as  of  a  col- 
umn or  pilaster;  especially,  where  there 
are  two  parallel  mouldings  or  groups  of 
mouldings  separating  the  bell  of  the  cap- 
ital from  the  shaft,  the  space  between  these. 

Groin.  —  The  angle  between  two  curved 
surfaces  of  a  vault.     See  Vault. 

Guilloche.  —  A  running  ornament 
formed  of  two  or  more  ribbons  or  straps 
which  interlace,  forming  circular  openings, 

Gutta  (pi.  Guttae) .  —  One  of  the  series 
of  small  pendant  cylinders  or  truncated 
cones,  used  in  the  entablature  of  the 
Grecian  Doric  order.     See  Fig.  9. 

Hagia.  —  The  Greek  term,  signifying 
holy  or  saint.  As  the  great  church  at 
Constantinople-  is  not  dedicated  to  any 
sainted  personage,  but  to  the  Divine  Wis- 
dom, Hagia  Sophia,  it  is  a  convenience  to 
call  the  church  by  that  name,  or  abbre- 
viated as  H.  Sophia, 

Haunch.  —  That  part  of  an  arch  which 
lies  between  the  crown  and  the  impost; 
one    of   the    two   sides   or    flanks.     The 


GLOSSARY 


555 


haunch  cannot  be  exactly  limited;  it  in- 
cludes the  greater  part  of  each  half  of  the 
arch.  Also  the  corresponding  part  of  a 
vault. 

Hephaistos.  —  In  Grecian  mythology, 
the  god  of  fire  and  metal-working,  identi- 
fied by  the  late  Roman  writers  with  the 
Italian  deity  Vulcan.  By  an  extension  of 
the  idea,  Hephaistos  becomes  the  creator 
of  fine  art  and  the  master-builder  and  the 
patron  of  artisans  and  artists. 

Herakles.  —  In  Grecian  mythology,  a 
demi-god,  son  of  Zeus,  the  personifica- 
tion of  physical  strength  and  the  righter 
of  wrongs.  The  Romans  Latinized  his 
name  as  Hercules. 

Hercules.  —  See  Herakles. 

Hezastyle.  —  Having  six  columns  in 
front,  as  a  portico  or  temple. 

Hip.  —  In  a  roof  of  approximately 
pyramidal  shape,  one  of  the  projecting  or 
solid  angles.     See  Hipped  Roof. 

Hip-knob. — An  ornamental  project- 
ing member  at  the  apex  of  a  hip-roof. 
By  extension,  and  especially  in  English 
architecture,  a  similar  ornament  in  other 
situations,  a  finial  adapted  to  wooden 
buildings. 

Hipped  Roof.  —  A  roof  which  slopes 
from  at  least  three  sides  toward  a  point  or 
ridge  at  the  top,  and  which  is  therefore 
somewhat  pyramidal  in  shape.  The  solid 
angles  or  ridges  which  reach  from  the 
eaves  to  the  top  are  called  hips,  and  the 
piece  of  timber  which  forms  each  one  of 
these  is  a  hip-rafter. 

Honeysuckle  Ornament. — The  most 
common  anthemion  used  in  Grecian  art. 

Hood  Moulding.  —  A  moulding  or 
group  of  mouldings  carried  above  and 
around  the  head  of  a  window  opening  or 
door  opening.  See  Fig.  128  in  the  upper 
story. 

Impost.  —  That  part  of  a  structure 
which  supports  one  side  of  an  arch;  there- 
fore commonly  the  top  of  the  wall  beneath 


the  arch,  or  of  a  pillar  or  pier  in  a  similar 
situation. 

Intercolumniation.  — The  space  from 
one  column  to  another  in  any  portico  or 
colonnade.  This  may  be  measured  from 
axis  to  axis  of  the  columns,  or  between  the 
shafts  near  the  bottom,  the  former  being 
much  the  more  usual  method  of  reckon- 
ing. 

Intrados.  —  The  inner  and  lower  face 
of  an  arch.     See  I,  I,  in  Plate  X. 

Ionic  Order. — The  second  of  the 
three  orders  used  by  the  Greeks.  See  Ch. 
II.  Sec.  II. 

Jamb.  —  In  a  doorway  or  window  open- 
ing the  surface  formed  by  the  thickness  of 
the  wall.  The  term  refers  to  the  surface 
only,  and  has  no  relation  to  a  separate 
member  or  piece  of  matarial. 

Joint.  —  The  space  between  the  ad- 
jacent surfaces  of  two  stones,  bricks,  or  the 
like.  When  filled  with  mortar  it  is  called 
mortar-joint. 

Jub^.  — The  screen  which  separates  the 
choir  from  the  rest  of  the  church  on  the 
side  towards  the  nave.     Cf.  Rood-screen. 

Kekrops  {Cecrops). — The  mythical 
first  prince  of  Attica,  and  founder  of  Attic 
civilization. 

Keystone.  —  That  one  of  the  voussoirs 
of  an  arch  which  is  put  in  last  and  is  often 
driven  in  with  blows  of  a  mallet.  Cf, 
Fig.  114  and  note  describing  it. 

King-post.  —  In  roof-framing,  a  piece 
of  timber  which  is  used  to  suspend  the 
middle  of  the  tie-beam  from  the  head  of 
the  rafters.  It  is  properly  not  a  post,  but 
a  tie. 

Krepidoma.  —  In  Grecian  architecture 
the  whole  platform  of  masonry  which  forms 
the  floor,  the  stereobate,  etc.,  of  a  building, 
especially  a  temple. 

Lady  Chapel.  —  In  English  ecclesi- 
astical architecture,  a  chapel  dedicated  to 
the  Virgin,  especially  when  large  and  partly 
detached  from  a  large  church. 


556 


GLOSSARY 


Lantern.  —  Any  round  or  polygonal 
upright  member  having  many  windows  in 
its  vertical  wall  or  walls;  especially  (a) 
the  culminating  part  of  a  cupola.  See 
Figs.  232,  236  and  252.  {d)  In  mediaeval 
art,  the  uppermost  story  of  a  tower  when 
lower  and  less  pointed  than  a  spire,  as  in 
the  church  of  Boston,  Lincolnshire,  or  the 
church  of  S.  Ouen  in  Rouen  (see  Plate 
IIL). 

LegatUB.  —  In  Roman  antiquity  an 
officer  replacing  or  representing  a  higher 
officer,  especially  the  governor  of  a  prov- 
ince appointed  by  the  emperor  and  gov- 
erning in  his  name. 

LinteL  —  A  piece  of  material  laid  hor- 
izontally from  one  upright  support  to  an- 
other, and  bearing  a  weight  by  its  power  of 
resisting  cross  fracture  and  bending  strain. 

Loggia.  —  A  covered  and  partly  en- 
closed place  for  walking  and  sitting  in  the 
open  air,  especially  if  enriched  and  archi- 
tectural in  character.     See  Fig.  169. 

Louvre.  —  A  lantern,  in  the  architect- 
ural sense,  especially  a.  small  one  with 
openings  to  allow  of  the  passage  of  air  and 
smoke. 

Lunette.  —  In  vaulting,  or  the  imita- 
tion of  vaulting  so  common  in  modern 
times,  that  part  of  a  wall  which  fills  the 
rounded  space  beneath  a  vault. 

Machicolated.  —  Having  the  defences 
usual  in  the  middle  ages,  consisting  of  a 
projecting  gallery  supported  on  corbels; 
said  of  a  wall  or  of  a  building. 

Mars.  —  An  Italian  deity  identified  by 
the  later  Latin  writers  with  the  Greek 
Ares,  and  in  this  sense  the  god  of  war. 

Meta  (pi.  Metae).  —  In  Roman  an- 
tiquity anything  set  up  to  mark  a  limit  or 
boundary;  in  the  circus  a  column,  or  group 
of  columns,  around  which  the  chariots 
turned  at  either  end.     Cf.  Spina, 

Metope.  —  In  the  Doric  style :  (a)  The 
space  between  the  triglyphs.  See  Entabla- 
ture.    (^)  The  block  or  slab  often  used  to 


fill  this  space,  sometimes  very  richly  sculpt- 
ured.    See  Figs.  9  and  10. 

Minerva.  —  A  Latin  goddess,  the 
daughter  of  Jupiter,  and  identified  by  the 
Latin  writers  with  Athena;  Minerva  Med- 
ica,  the  goddess  considered  as  patron  of 
health  and  healing. 

Modillion.  —  One  of  the  ornamented 
brackets  which  seem  to  support  the  cornice 
in  the  Corinthian  entablature. 

Mortise.  —  A  small  hole,  square  or 
nearly  square,  cut  in  a  piece  of  timber  to 
receive  a  tenon. 

Mortise  and  Tenon  Joint.— A  man- 
ner of  putting  together  timbers  by  fitting 
a  projection  called  a  tenon  on  the  end  of 
one  timber,  into  a  hole  called  the  mortise 
in  the  side  of  another  timber. 

Mosaic.  —  Decorative  work  done  by 
means  of  small  pieces  of  hard  and  durable 
material  fitted  together  to  cover  a  surface, 
as  of  a  floor,  wall  or  ceiling. 

Moulded.  —  Decorated  by  mouldings; 
having  its  angle  or  surface  varied  by  being 
worked  into  mouldings. 

Mudejar  Style.  —  In  Spanish  archi- 
tecture, a  modification  of  the  late  and 
florid  Gothic  by  the  introduction  of  Moor- 
ish details. 

Mullion.  —  An  upright  member  serving 
to  divide  an  opening,  or  forming  part  of 
a  framework.  Cf.  Transom.  The  mul- 
lions  in  Gothic  windows  are  the  origin  of 
the  bar  tracery  which  forms  so  important  a 
part  in  Northern  Gothic  decoration. 

Mutule.  —  A  surface  in  slight  relief  on 
the  under  side  of  the  cornice  in  the  Gre- 
cian Doric  order.     See  Fig.  9. 

NaoB.  — The  inner  chamber  or  princi- 
pal enclosed  part  of  a  Greek  temple.  Com- 
pare Opisthodomos,  and  see  the  plans  of 
temples,  such  as  Figs,  i,  4  and  6. 

Narthez.  —  The  enclosed  porch  or  ves- 
tibule of  a  church,  used  especially  in  connec- 
tion with  Byzantine  and  Eastern  buildings. 
See  Figs.  59,  68  and  loi. 


GLOSSARY 


557 


Nave.  —  The  principal  room  in  a  pub- 
lic building;  the  large  and  high  part  of  the 
place  of  assembly  used  in  two  senses  in 
Christian  church  building,  (a)  The  part 
nearest  the  principal  entrance,  and  forming 
the  chief  resort  of  the  laity,  as  distinguished 
from  the  choir  and  transepts,  (d)  The 
high  middle  part  as  distinguished  from  the 
lower  aisles;  in  this  sense  the  nave  includes 
the  clear-story,  or  the  clear-story  may  be 
considered  the  upper  part  of  the  nave. 
As  there  is  no  term  in  use  for  the  middle 
and  highest  part  of  the  choir  or  transept,  as 
distinguished  from  the  aisles  of  those  parts, 
the  word  "  nave "  is  sometimes  applied 
here,  as,  the  nave  of  the  choir. 

Necking.  — The  lowest  part  of  a  cap- 
ital of  a  column  or  pilaster;  usually  a 
moulding,  or  group  of  mouldings,  around 
the  capital,  and  separating  it  from  the 
shaft.     See  Figs,  ii  and  12. 

Neo-clasBic.  —  An  imitation  of  that 
which  is  classic;  said  of  the  architecture 
and  decoration  in  use  since  the  beginning  of 
the  architectural  Renaissance  about  1420. 

Niche.  —  A  recess  or  small  chamber 
open  on  one  side;  by  extension,  as  niches 
are  commonly  used  to  receive  statues,  a 
combination  of  a  projecting  bracket  or 
corbel  which  may  support  a  statue,  and  a 
canopy  above  which  may  shelter  it;  an  im- 
portant feature  in  Gothic  architecture.  See 
Figs.  128  and  129. 

Nike.  —  In  Grecian  mythology  the  god- 
dess of  victory,  or  Victory  personified.  See 
Athena  Nike. 

Nike  Apteros.  —  See  Apteros. 

North  Flank,  North  Transept,  etc. 
—  See  Orientation. 

Nymphaeum.  —  In  Roman  buildings, 
a  temple,  shrine  or  sacred  enclosure  dedi- 
cated to  any  nymph,  or  group  or  class  of 
nymphs. 

Obelisk.  —  (a)  An  upright  shaft,  square, 
with  slightly  sloping  sides,  and  with  the  top 
cut   to   a   pyramid,  with  the  sides  much 


more  sloping;  a  decorative  object  in  use 
among  the  ancient  Egyptians,  (d)  By  ex- 
tension, a  somewhat  similar  form  occasion- 
ally introduced  in  neo-classic  architecture. 
See  Fig.  250. 

Octostyle.  —  Having  eight  columns  in 
front;   said  of  a  portico  or  temple. 

OculuB.  —  A  window  of  circular  or 
oval  form.     See  Bull's-eye. 

Odeion.  —  In  Greek  building,  a  theatre 
arranged  for  musical  entertainments,  called 
by  the  Romans  Odeum. 

Ogee. — Curved  like  the  letter  S. 

Ogee  =  moulding:  a  moulding  which  has 
a  section  or  profile  shaped  like  this  curve. 

Opisthodomos.  —  (a)  The  porch  or 
vestibule  behind  the  naos  of  a  Greek  tem- 
ple. (^)  In  a  very  few  temples,  an  enclosed 
chamber  behind  the  naos;  in  these  cases, 
the  porch  or  vestibule  beyond  and  behind 
the  opisthodomos  is  called  the  epinaos,  or, 
not  so  properly,  the  posticum. 

Orchestra.  —  In  the  Greek  theatre, 
that  part  of  the  space  devoted  to  the  per- 
formers which  was  occupied  by  the  chorus. 

Order.  —  In  classic  and  neo-classic 
building,  (a)  The  unit  of  decorative  post- 
and-lintel  composition;  that  is,  a  column 
or  pilaster,  with  its  pedestal,  if  any,  and  so 
much  of  the  entablature  as  may  be  thought 
to  go  with  the  column  or  pilaster.  (3)  One 
of  the  different  styles  of  Greek  or  of  Roman 
architecture,  as  distinguished  by  the  peculi- 
arities of  its  order  in  the  sense  (a).  Thus 
the  Ionic  order  is  the  style  known  by  its 
order  being  Ionic  in  character. 

Colossal  Order :  An  order  extending  the 
whole  height,  or  nearly  the  whole  height, 
of  a  building,  and  corresponding  to  two 
or  more  stories  within. 

Oriel.  —  A  small  loggia,  especially  if 
projecting  from  the  wall  of  a  larger  build- 
ing; also  a  similar  projecting  apartment, 
when  enclosed  with  glass,  in  which  case  it 
is  called  an  oriel-window.  The  distinction 
is  sometimes  made  between  a  bay  window 


558 


GLOSSARY 


which  rises  from  the  ground,  and  an  oriel- 
window  which  is  corbelled  out  from  the 
wall.     See  Fig.  224. 

Orientation.  —  The  system  or  habit  of 
turning  the  entrance,  or  the  peculiarly 
sacred  part  of  a  sacred  building,  toward 
one  point  of  the  compass.  Greek  temples 
often  have  their  principal  entrance  at  the 
east  end;  Christian  churches  have  often 
their  principal  altar  and  the  part  reserved 
for  the  clergy  and  for  divine  service,  at  the 
eastern  end  of  the  building.  This  brings 
with  it  the  arrangement  common  in  Byz- 
antine churches,  and  almost  universal  in 
Europe  north  of  the  Alps,  of  having  the 
principal  entrances  and  the  especially  rich 
front  turned  westward,  the  two  long  sides 
and  the  two  arms  of  the  transept  turned 
northward  and  southward,  and  the  apse, 
choir,  chancel  or  chevet,  where  no  en- 
trance is  commonly  provided,  turned  east- 
ward. Hence  it  is  customary  to  speak  of 
the  front  with  the  great  doors  as  the  west 
front  and  the  corresponding  sides,  etc., 
as  south  flank,  etc.,  without  considering 
whether  the  terms  are  accurate  in  the 
given  case.  This  arrangement  is  almost 
unknown  in  Italy. 

Pallas.  —  Same  as  Athena. 

Panel.  —  Originally  a  piece  of  board 
held  in  place  by  grooves  in  a  frame  which 
encloses  it,  or  in  some  similar  way,  so  that 
it  is  free  to  shrink  and  expand  without 
splitting.  By  extension,  a  sunken  or  re- 
cessed surface,  generally  having  a  deco- 
rative purpose. 

Parapet.  —  A  low  wall,  balustrade,  or 
railing,  intended  to  keep  people  from  fall- 
ing, as  from  a  roof  or  terrace. 

Pausanias.  —  A  Greek  writer  of  the  sec- 
ond century  a.d.,  author  of  the  "  Hellados 
Periegesis,  or  Greek  Itinerary."  This  book 
is  the  only  considerable  account  preserved 
to  us  of  the  Grecian  buildings  and  works 
of  art  as  they  were  in  antiquity,  and  con- 
tains nearly  all   the  ancient  documentary 


evidence  that  we  have  concerning  them; 
but  many  very  important  details  are  left 
unmentioned. 

Pedestal.  —  A  supporting  member,  («) 
set  under  a  column  to  raise  it  above  the 
stylobate  or  base  line  of  the  building  (see 
Figs.  31,  221,  224  and  229),  or  (d)  for  an 
architectural  vase  or  a  statue.  See  Figs. 
216,  233,  235  and  236. 

Pediment.  —  In  classic  or  neo-classic 
building,  (a)  The  low  gable  wall  at  the 
end  of  a  temple  or  similar  oblong  struct- 
ure, and  rising  above  the  portico.  Cf.  Gable. 
(3)  The  crowning  member  of  an  ornamen- 
tal framework  around  a  window  or  similar 
opening,  when  approximating  to  the  shape 
of  a  gable.     Cf.  Fronton. 

Pendentive.  —  A  curved  triangular 
piece  of  vaulting,  one  of  those  which 
bring  the  square  or  polygonal  chamber 
below  to  the  circular  form  of  the  dome 
above.  Thus  in  Fig.  69,  the  large  tri- 
angles filled  with  cherubs  are  the  penden- 
tives. 

Peribolos.  —  The  enclosed  space  about 
an  important  building,  as  a  temple;  hence, 
a  sacred  enclosure. 

Peripteral.  —  Having  columns  on 
every  side;    said  of  a  Grecian  temple. 

Peristomion.  —  In  Grecian  archaeol- 
ogy, a  well-head  or  well-curb. 

Peristylar. — (a)  Having  a  peristyle; 
(^)  forming  a  peristyle. 

Peristyle.  —  A  series  of  ranges  of  col- 
umns taken  together,  whether  outside  of 
the  naos  of  a  temple,  or  on  the  inside  faces 
of  a  building  upon  a  court,  but  always  con- 
tinuous. 

Perpendicular  Style.  — The  style  of 
English  Gothic  prevailing  about  1360- 
1480.  See  Ch.  VI.  Sec.  IV.,  and  Ch. 
VII.  Sec.  IV. 

Perron.  —  A  flight  of  steps  generally 
few  in  number  and  out  of  doors,  as  leading 
to  an  external  doorway,  or  to  a  terrace  in 
a  garden. 


GLOSSARY 


559 


Pier,  —  A  solid  upright  mass  of  masonry 
as  between  two  windows  or  similar  open- 
ings, or  one  of  those  between  the  nave  and 
aisles  of  a  church,  when  not  a  single  column. 

Pilaster.  —  A  vertical  member  support- 
ing or  seeming  to  support  an  entablature 
or  arch.  A  pilaster  is  always  in  slight  pro- 
jection from  a  wall  or  pier,  and  has  only 
one  principal  face,  thus  differing  from  the 
anta,  which  has  two  or  three  faces. 

Pillar.  —  A  pier  or  column;  the  general 
term  for  all  isolated  upright  architectural 
supports. 

Pinnacle.  —  An  upright  architectural 
member,  having  generally  a  decorative  pur- 
pose. In  Gothic  architecture,  pinnacles 
are  set  upon  the  tops  of  buttresses  and 
buttress-piers  to  supply  additional  weight 
where  it  is  needed,  as  well  as  for  ornament. 
See  Figs.  125,  132,  158  and  159. 

Podium.  —  (a)  A  continuous  solid  base 
of  a  wall,  or  support  for  a  colonnade,  (i)  A 
low  wall  serving  as  a  facing  or  retaining 
wall. 

Polias.  —  See  Athena. 

Polychromy.  —  Decoration  by  means 
of  several  colours  combined  in  a  design. 

Pompadour  Style.  —  Same  as  Rococo. 

Portico.  — A  covered  porch  or  open 
building  of  any  size  with  columns.  Often, 
by  extension,  the  row  of  columns  itself,  the 
pteron. 

Porticus.  —  In  Roman  antiquity  a  porch 
or  gallery.  The  word  conveys  the  idea  of 
an  open  colonnade  less  absolutely  than  the 
modern  portico.  Cf.  Loggia  and  Ambula- 
tory. 

Poseidon.  —  In  Grecian  mythology,  the 
god  of  the  seas  and  one  of  the  great  gods 
of  Olympus;  brother  of  Zeus.  The  later 
Roman  writers  identified  him  with  the 
Italian  deity  Neptune. 

Posticum.  —  Same  as  Opisthodomos  in 
its  first  sense.  Often  used  for  the  porch 
outside  of  the  opisthodomos,  where  epinaos 
would  be  more  strictly  correct. 


PronaOB. — In  Greek  temples,  the  porch 
or  vestibule  at  the  entrance  of  the  naos. 

Propylaia. — A  group  of  buildings  form- 
ing or  surrounding  a  gateway. 

Prostyle.  —  Having  columns  in  front 
only;   said  of  a  temple. 

Pseudodipteral.  —  Having  the  row  of 
columns  as  far  from  the  wall  of  the  naos  or 
sekos  as  if  there  were  a  second  and  inner 
row.     Said  of  any  pcristylar  structure. 

Pteroma.  —  The  space  between  the 
pteron  and  the  wall  of  the  enclosure;  also 
all  the  space  from  the  wall  of  the  enclosure 
to  the  top  step  or  edge  of  the  stylobate. 

Pteron.  —  A  range  or  row  of  columns; 
a  colonnade  so  far  as  the  columns  them- 
selves and  their  superstructure  are  con- 
cerned, but  not  including  the  covered  space 
between  and  behind  them.     Cf.  Pteroma. 

Puteal.  —  A  well-head  or  well-curb. 
Cf.  Peristomion. 

Quoin.  —  One  or  many  stones  or  similar 
masses  of  material  which  form  a  corner. 
The  term  is  used  for  masses  that  are  accu- 
rately cut  and  set,  and  form  a  feature  in 
the  design. 

Reeded.  —  Decorated  by  means  of  con- 
vex ridges  set  close  together;  the  reverse 
of  fluted  or  channelled;  said  especially  of 
a  shaft  of  a  column  in  classic  or  neo-classic 
architecture. 

Relief.  —  In  sculpture,  projection  of  the 
figures  or  foliage  from  a  background  which 
is  not  necessarily  continuous  nor  uniform. 

Bas-relief :  Low  relief,  although  the 
lowest  relief  of  all,  as  in  coins  and  medal- 
lions, receives  a  different  name.  With  the 
article,  frequently  used  for  a  relief  of  any 
kind. 

Ressaut. — A  projecting  member  formed 
by  carrying  the  entablature  of  a  colonnade 
out  at  right  angles  as  if  to  form  a  pier  or 
buttress,  and  putting  a  column  or  pair  of 
columns  beneath  it.  See  Figs.  45,  198 
and  229. 

Rocaille.  —  Decoration  by  what  is  as- 


560 


GLOSSARY 


sumed  to  be  rock-work  or  a  grotesque  com- 
bination of  water-worn  stones,  shells,  and 
the  like ;  by  extension,  decorations  by  scrolls 
and  curved  ribs  not  continuous  but  in  broken 
parts,  which  intercept  one  another,  espe- 
cially in  the  borders  of  panels  and  open- 
ings, and  accompanied  by  naturalistic  plant 
and  animal  forms.     See  Rococo. 

Rococo  Style.  —  The  style  which  pre- 
vailed from  about  1 700  until  the  appear- 
ance of  the  Louis  XVL  style,  about  1770. 
It  is  marked  by  abundance  of  rocaille  deco- 
ration. 

Roll  Moulding.  —  A  convex  moulding 
of  large  size,  sometimes  having  the  sur- 
face carved  into  the  semblance  of  laurel 
leaves  or  the  like. 

Rood-screen.  —  In  English  architect- 
ure the  same  as  'jube,'  so  called  because 
often  carrying  a  cross  or  crucifix  called  Rood. 

Rose-'VTindow.  —  A  large  circular  win- 
dow filled  with  tracery  of  generally  radiat- 
ing character. 

Roundel.  —  A  circular  window  or  panel, 
or  other  such  architectural  member. 

Rubble.  —  Stones  of  irregular  form  and 
size,  and  masonry  made  of  such  stones. 

Sacristy.  —  A  room  or  set  of  rooms 
attached  to  a  church,  and  used  by  the 
clergy  and  choristers  for  robing  and  for 
the  storage  of  church  utensils,  etc. 

Scale  Ornament. — An  ornament  made 
by  flat  plates  overlapping  one  another,  or 
by  the  appearance  of  them  as  in  imbrica- 
tion. 

Scroll.  —  In  architectural  ornament, 
any  spiral  or  waving  stem  which  gives 
off  smaller  stems  at  intervals,  or  which 
forms  spirals  or  volutes.  Scrolls  are 
sometimes  worked  with  leaves  and  flow- 
ers, as  in  Roman  and  neo-classic  orna- 
ment. 

Segmental  Arch.  See  figure  in  Plate 
X. 

Sekos.  In  Grecian  building,  the  inner 
part  of  a  colonnaded   structure.     As  the 


words  naos  and  cella  have  been  used 
so  generally  for  the  oblong  enclosed  parts 
of  ordinary  temples,  the  word  sekos  has 
been  applied  to  such  a  room  when  circular 
or  of  other  unusual  form. 

Sexpartite.  Divided  into  six  parts; 
said  of  certain  kinds  of  mediaeval  vaulting. 
See  Fig.  iix. 

Shaft. — The  middle  or  larger  part  of 
a  column.  In  general,  any  slender  upright 
member. 

Skewback.  —  A  sloping  surface  against 
which  a  segmental  or  flat  arch  may  abut. 
The  term  is  extended  to  the  mass  of  mate- 
rial which  forms  the  sloping  surface,  as  a 
stone,  or  an  iron  plate  with  its  proper 
supports. 

Soffit. — The  under  side  of  a  lintel  or 
other  horizontal  member,  indicating  the 
surface  only,  and  not  the  piece  of  mate- 
rial.    Cf.  Jamb. 

South  Flank,  South  Transept,  etc. 
—  See  Orientation. 

Spandrel.  —  (a)  The  triangular  space 
between  the  curved  sides  of  two  adjacent 
arches  and  any  horizontal  moulding  or 
band  above.  (^)  A  triangular  space  be- 
tween the  curved  side  of  one  arch  and  any 
vertical  member,  as  a  pilaster  or  frame. 

Spina.  —  In  Roman  antiquity,  a  low 
thick  wall  dividing  the  arena  of  a  circus 
in  the  direction  of  its  length,  but  not  ex- 
actly parallel  with  either  side. 

Springing  Line.  —  In  the  mathemati- 
cal drawing  (elevation  or  section)  of  any 
arch,  except  a  flat  one,  the  horizontal  line, 
which  passes  through  the  centre  or  centres 
and  which  meets  the  vertical  lines  of  the 
impost  at  the  level  where  they  are  tangent 
to  the  curves  of  the  arch.  Hence,  by  ex- 
tension, an  imaginary  line  which  marks 
the  beginning  of  the  actual  curve,  as  of 
the  intrados.    See  Figs.  87  and  88. 

Stereobate. — The  mass  of  masonry 
upon  which  the  outer  walls  or  colonnades 
of  a  building  rest;    the  visible  and  archi- 


GLOSSARY 


561 


tectural  part  of  the  foundation ;  it  includes 
the  stylobate,  which  is  its  upper  layer,  and 
forms  the  outer  vertical  or  nearly  vertical 
face  of  the  krepidoma. 

Stilted  Arch.  —  An  arch  whose  spring- 
ing line  is  raised  decidedly  above  the  ap- 
parent impost,  as  the  capital  of  a  column 
or  the  like.     See  Arch,  and  Fig.  88. 

Stoa. — In  Greek  building,  a  porch  or 
open  gallery;  very  nearly  the  same  as  the 
Roman  porticus. 

Strap  Ornament.  —  Ornamentation 
made  by  plaited  or  interlaced  bands;  by 
extension,  a  representation  in  carving  or 
painting  of  such  interwoven  ornament. 
See  Fig.  226.  Also  by  extension,  and  less 
properly,  ornament  made  up  of  strap-like 
or  ribbon-like  members,  not  necessarily 
interlaced.     See  Figs.  225  and  226. 

Strigil  Ornament.  —  Decoration  by 
means  of  flutes  or  channels  cut  parallel, 
but  in  slightly  marked  S  curves.  The 
name  is  taken  from  the  strigil,  the  classi- 
cal implement  for  scraping  the  skin,  as  at 
the  bath. 

String  Course.  —  A  horizontal  or  gen- 
erally horizontal  band,  usually  of  orna- 
mental character. 

Strut.  —  In  timber  framing  a  piece  of 
wood  used  as  a  brace  or  stay,  like  a  post, 
but  often  not  in  a  vertical  position.  See 
Fig.  1 66  A. 

Stucco.  —  Plaster  used  to  cover  sur- 
faces, especially  that  which  is  weather- 
proof and  fit  to  use  out  of  doors. 

Stylobate.  —  The  substructure  for  the 
columns,  especially  in  a  Greek  building, 
the  outermost  part  of  the  krepidoma  upon 
which  the  columns  stand.     See  Fig.  9. 

Tamboxir.  —  Same  as  Drum. 

Telamonea  (pi.).  —  Same  as  Atlantes. 

Telesterion.  —  In  Greek  archaeology 
a  place  for  initiation. 

Temple.  —  A  place  especially  set  apart 
for  the  worship  of  a  divinity;  usually  a 
building. 

2  o 


Tenon.  —  See  Mortise  and  Tenon  Joint. 

Tepidarium.  — In  Roman  building,  the 
warm  chamber  of  a  bathing  establishment, 
offering  air  and  water  cooler  than  the 
caldarium,  but  not  cold. 

Tetraatyle.  —  Having  four  columns  in 
front;  said  of  a  portico  or  temple.  See 
the  north  portico  of  the  Erechtheion,  Fig. 
14.     See  also  Fig.  35. 

Thermae  (pi.).  —  In  Roman  antiquity, 
public  baths,  a  plural  noun  not  used  in  the 
singular. 

Theseus.  —  In  Grecian  mythology,  a 
hero,  founder  of  Athens  and  the  Attic 
state.  Divine  honours  were  paid  him  in 
Athens. 

Tholos.  —  In  Grecian  building,  a  circu- 
lar edifice  of  any  sort.     See  Fig.  24. 

Thrust.  — The  horizontal  or  diagonal 
pressure  exercised  by  a  vault  or  arch. 

Tie-beam.  — A  piece  of  timber  secured 
horizontally  across  a  roof-truss  at  the  feet 
of  the  rafters  to  keep  them  in  place  and 
prevent  the  truss  from  spreading.  In  Fig. 
166  A  there  is  no  tie-beam  properly  so 
called;  but  A,  the  collar-beam,  is  the  tie- 
beam  for  all  the  truss  above  it.  See  also 
Fig.  152,  where  one  end  of  a  large  tie- 
beam  is  shown. 

Tie-rod.  —  An  iron  rod  used  as  a  tie, 
as  to  replace  a  tie-beam  (which  see),  or  to 
take  up  the  thrust  of  an  arch.  See  Figs. 
168  A,  169  and  171. 

Torus.  —  A  large  moulding  of  convex, 
nearly  semicircular,  section.  Cf.  Roll 
Moulding.  See,  in  Fig.  15,  the  lowermost 
moulding  of  the  base. 

Trabeated. — Made  up  of  beams; 
having  beams  for  an  important  part. 

Trabeated  Construction:  a  system  of 
building  in  which  upright  posts  carry  hori- 
zontal beams.  All  Greek  buildings  de- 
scribed in  Chap.  I.  are  of  this  character. 
See  also  Figs.  35,  36,  39,  233  and  256. 

Tracery.  —  In  Gothic  architecture  the 
decorative  arrangement  of  openings  and 


S62 


GLOSSARY 


solids  in  the  head  of  a  pointed  window, 
in  a  pierced  gable,  or  in  mere  decorative 
relief  on  a  panel. 

Bar  Tracery:  that  in  which  the  patterns 
seem  to  be  composed  of  the  bars  which 
form  the  upright  muUions  below,  and  which 
are  tangent  to  one  another,  or  pass  into 
one  another  gradually.  See  Figs.  124, 
125,  136  (the  more  distant  window),  and 
145-150. 

Plate  Tracery:  that  in  which  the  open- 
ings are  shown  as  cut  through  a  flat  surface 
which  is  adorned  at  the  edges,  with  no 
attempt  at  imitating  the  interlacing  of 
bars.  See  Figs.  141  and  168  A;  but  these 
examples  are  inadequate. 

Transept.  —  That  part  of  a  building 
whose  greatest  length  is  at  right  angles  or 
nearly  so  with  the  main  lines  of  the  build- 
ing, especially  in  Christian  churches.  The 
transept  is  properly  the  whole  mass  which 
in  the  early  basilicas  is  next  to  the  apse 
and  has  the  nave  and  aisles  open  into  it, 
and  which  in  the  Gothic  churches  sepa- 
rates the  longer  mass  of  the  church  into 
two  nearly  equal  parts.  Some  English 
churches  have  two  such  transepts.  So 
much  of  a  transept  as  projects  to  one  side 
beyond  the  nave  or.  choir  should  be  called 
an  arm  of  the  transept,  but  it  is  common 
to  speak  of  the  south  transept  instead  of 
the  south  arm  of  the  transept,  etc.  Cf. 
Orientation.  See  Fig.  153,  in  which  the 
lower  structures  of  the  aisles  are  carried 
as  far  to  the  north  and  south  as  the  tran- 
sept projects,  which,  however,  would  be 
perfectly  recognizable  from  the  outside. 
See  also  Fig.  120,  in  which  the  transept 
has  rounded  ends.  See  also  Figs.  144  and 
155;  also  for  external  effect,  Fig.  127  and 
Plate  III. 

Transom.  —  A  horizontal  member  serv- 
ing to  divide  an  opening  or  forming  part 
of  a  framework.     Cf.  Mullion. 

Tri-apsal  or  Triapsidal.  —  Having 
three    apses.       Two    forms    of    tri-apsal 


churches  are  common :  one  in  which  an 
apse  forms  the  end  of  each  aisle  as  well  as 
of  the  nave,  the  other  in  which  the  apses 
project  in  three  diff'erent  directions,  as  in 
Fig.  71.  In  Fig.  72  the  three  apsidioles  do 
not  make  this  a  tri-apsal  church,  because 
they  are  only  chapels  and  relatively  low. 
Cf.  Figs.  76  and  144. 

Triforium.  —  In  mediaeval  church  ar- 
chitecture, an  open  arcade  or  similar  archi- 
tectural feature  in  the  wall  of  the  nave, 
choir  or  transept  above  the  great  arches 
which  open  into  the  aisles.  By  extension, 
the  triforium  gallery.  In  Fig.  121,  the  ar- 
cade of  small  arches,  four  to  the  bay,  is  the 
triforium.  In  Figs.  135  and  164,  the  arcade 
immediately  above  the  nave  arches. 

Triforium  Gallery.  —  A  gallery  be- 
tween the  vaulting  of  the  aisle  and  the 
sloping  wooden  roof  above,  opening  into 
the  nave  or  other  high  part  of  the  church 
through  the  arcades  of  the  triforium.  The 
triforium  gallery  is  often  called  triforium. 

Triglyph.  —  In  the  Grecian  Doric  order, 
one  of  the  solid  blocks  resting  upon  the 
epistyle  and  supporting  the  cornice.  The 
triglyphs,  and  the  metope  slabs  between 
them,  form  the  frieze  of  the  order.  See 
Figs.  9  and  10. 

Trumeau. — The  mullion  or  slender 
pier  supporting  the  tympanum  of  a  Gothic 
portal  and  dividing  the  opening  into  two 
doorways.     See  Figs.  1 26  and  1 80. 

Truss.  —  A  framework  of  timber,  es- 
pecially one  of  the  triangular  frames  which 
support  the  roof.  Fig.  166  A  shows  one- 
half  of  an  extremely  complicated  truss. 
Fig.  156  shows  trusses  of  very  simple  char- 
acter. 

Tudor  Style.  —  In  English  architect- 
ure the  style  which  is  identified  with  the 
reigns  of  Henry  VII.,  Henry  VIII.,  Ed- 
ward VI.,  and  Mary. 

Tympanum.  —  {a)  A  recessed  panel- 
like space  between  constructional  mem- 
bers, as  the  triangular  panel  of  the  pediment 


GLOSSARY 


563 


beneath  the  raking  cornice  and  above  the 
lower  cornice.  See  Figs.  2,  5,  35  and  36. 
(^)  the  space  beneath  the  arches  of  a 
portal,  and  above  the  actual  doorway  or 
doorways.  See  Figs.  126  and  130.  In 
Fig.  180  there  are  subordinate  tympanums, 
and  a  large  one  above. 

Vault.  —  A  structure  of  masonry  so 
built  as  to  form  a  roof  or  ceiling. 

Annular  Vault:  {a)  A  vault  built 
over  a  passage,  aisle  or  gallery  having  a 
curved  plan;  especially  a  barrel  vault  in 
such  a  position.  See  Fig.  62.  (J))  A  vault 
the  surface  of  which  is  ring-shaped,  but 
not  horizontal.  Thus,  if  a  half-tube  is  bent 
in  the  form  of  an  arch,  rising  above  a  hor- 
izontal plane,  the  inner  surface  of  such  a 
tube  resembles  some  vaults  used  in  Ro- 
manesque work  (see  Ch.  IV.) ;  and  such 
vaults  are  called  annular  although  their 
surfaces  may  not  be  everywhere  parts  of 
the  same  tubular  or  ring-like  surface.  See 
Fig.  88,  where  X  is  approximately  an  annu- 
lar vault. 

Barrel  Vault:  A  vault  which  has  the 
same  cross-section  everywhere.  Thus,  in 
P'ig.  192,  the  vault  on  each  side  of  the 
cupola. 

Fan  Vault:  See  Figs.  190  and  191, 
and  Plate  VIII.,  and  the  text  describing 
them. 

Groined  Vault:  A  vault  which  is 
made  up  of  cylindrical  vaults  meeting  and 
intersecting  one  another,  and  built  in  a 
solid  shell  without  independent  and  sup- 
porting ribs.     See  Figs.  29  and  67. 

Ribbed  Vault:  A  vault  built  with  ribs 
which  carry  and  support  the  vaulted  sur- 
faces, as  in  Gothic  architecture. 

Wagon  Vault:  Same  as  Barrel  Vault. 

Vaulted.  —  (a)  Made  of  vaulting,  as  a 
roof.  (Ji)  Covered  or  roofed  by  a  vault, 
as  a  room  or  hall. 

Venus.  —  In  the  earlier  Roman  mythol- 
ogy, a  goddess  of  minor  importance;  after- 
wards identified  with  Aphrodite,  which  see. 


Vera  di  Pozzo.  —  In  Venice,  a  cistern- 
head  ;  one  of  the  solid  blocks  of  stone  or 
marble,  pierced  with  a  round  shaft  verti- 
cally through  the  middle,  and  serving  to 
protect  the  mouth  of  one  of  the  cisterns  in 
which  is  stored  the  water  brought  from  the 
mainland.  Two  in  the  court  of  the  Ducal 
Palace  are  of  bronze.  Cf.  Puteal  and  Peri- 
stomion. 

Vesta.  —  In  Roman  mythology,  the 
goddess  of  fire  and  of  the  domestic 
hearth. 

Vitruvius.  —  A  Roman  architect  and 
writer  on  architecture.  His  name  was 
Vitruvius  Pollio,  and  he  lived  in  the  reign 
of  Augustus.  His  work,  "Ten  Books  on 
Architecture,"  is  the  only  one  on  building, 
treated  technically,  which  has  come  down 
to  us  from  classical  times;  but  it  is  brief, 
and  most  unsatisfactory  as  a  treatise  or  as 
a  history. 

Volutes.  —  An  ornament  in  the  shape 
of  a  spiral,  especially  one  of  the  flat  spirals 
at  the  corners  of  an  Ionic  capital.  See 
Figs.  13,  15  and  53. 

Voussoir.  —  One  of  the  solid  bodies, 
more  or  less  wedge-shaped,  of  which  an 
arch  is  composed.     See  Plate  X. 

■Wainscot.  —  Woodwork  used  in  parti- 
tions, lining  of  rooms  and  the  like. 

Wall-arch.  —  In  Gothic  vaulting,  the 
rib  which  is  built  at  the  extreme  outer 
edge  of  the  vault,  where  the  wall  or  the 
window  is,  to  close  the  vault  on  the  out- 
side; also  the  corresponding  rib  on  each 
outer  edge  of  the  square  or  trapezium 
formed  by  the  vault.  See  diagrams  of 
Gothic  vaulting,  Ch.  V. 

West  Front,  West  End,  etc.  —  See 
Orientation. 

Zeus.  —  The  chief  of  the  Greek  gods, 
the  special  deity  of  the  sky,  and  of  light- 
ning and  thunder.  Olympia  and  Dodona 
were  peculiarly  sacred  to  him.  The  Latin 
writers  found  his  character  and  attributes 
in  their  own  Deus  Pater,  or  Jupiter. 


INDEX 


Aachan,  see  Aix-la-Chapelle. 

Abbeville :  Ch.  of  S.  Wulfram,  334, 335,  351. 

Hotel  de  Ville,  417. 
Adam,  James,  535. 
Adam,  Robert,  535. 
^gina.  Island  of:   Ruins,  7,  36,  41. 
Aerschot:  Jube  in  Church,  417. 
Aix-la-Chapelle  :    Imperial    Chapel,    now 

Cath.,  147  (fig.),  280. 
Aizani :  Temple  of  Zeus,  24. 
Akragas  :   Ruins,  6,  7. 

Temple  of  Concordia,  65. 

Temples  at,  531. 

Temple  of  Zeus,  42,  43  (fig.),  44,  94- 

Tomb  of  Theron  (so-called),  47. 
Alberti,  Leon  Battista,  371,  372. 
Albi:  Cath.  (S.  Cecile),  264,  276,  282,342 

(fig-)- 
Alcantara :   Roman  Arch,  89. 
Alexandria :     Roman    Monument    (called 

Pompey's  Pillar),  92. 
Amboise :  Chateau,  Chapel  of  S.  Hubert, 

342 ;  vaulting,  342. 
American  "  Old  Colonial "  style,  534,  535. 
Amesbury  House,  517. 
Amiens:  Cath.,  209,  232,  307  (fig.),  308. 
Ammanati,  Bartolomeo,  466,  472. 
Amphitheatres,  Roman,  63,  70. 
Ancona :  Arch  of  Trajan,  89. 
Ancyra :  Temple  of  Augustus,  79. 
Androuet  du  Cerceau,  Jacques,  393, 407. 
Anet,  Chateau  of,  409. 
Angouleme  :  Cath.,  159,  178. 
Anthemios,  139. 


Antwerp:    Cath.,    283,     284,    285    (fig.), 

348- 

Ch.  of  N.  D.  de  la  Chapelle,  285. 

Ch.  of  N.  D.  des  Victoires,  285. 

Ch.  of  S.  Charles  Borromeo,  419  (fig.). 

Doorway,  497  (fig.). 

Hotel  de  Ville,  418,  419. 

Tower  of  Cathedral  compared  with  that 
of  Strasburg,  348. 
Aosta :  Roman  Gateway,  87. 

Triumphal  Arch  of  Augustus,  89. 
Aphrodisias:  Temple  of  Aphrodite,  24. 
Arabesques,  375  (figs.). 
Aries :  Amphitheatre,  70. 

Cloister  of  S.  Trophime,  179. 
Artistic  Ability,  Decay  of,  in  fourth  century 

A.D.,  143. 
Ashton  Hall,  see  Birmingham. 
Assisi:  Ch.  of  S.  Francis,  257  (fig.),  311. 

Roman  Temple,  77, 
Assos :  Ruins,  7. 

Temple,  37. 
Athens : 

Acropolis :  buildings,  49  ;  also  see 
Erechtheion,  Parthenon,  Propylaia, 
Temple  of  Athena  Nike, 

Arch  of  Hadrian,  86,  87  n.    (fig.),  89, 

97.  "3- 
Cathedral,  the  Old,  136. 
Choragic  Monument  of  Lysikrates,  30, 

31  (fig-).  32  (fig-).  34- 
Churches  (Byzantine),  183. 
Erechtheion,   2,   23  (fig.),  24,  25,    26 

(fig.),  28  (fig.),  39.  85. 
Odeion,  70. 


565 


566 


INDEX 


Athens:  Parthenon,  2,  4,  9  (fig.)i  37>  85, 

532;   description  of,  9,  10,  20,  21 ; 

sculpture  from,  41 ;    compared  with 

Temple  of  Zeus  at  Olympia,  10  (fig.) . 

Propylaia,  13  (fig.),  14  (fig-).  532- 

Stoa,  or  Portico  of  Attalos,  25. 

Temple  of  Athena  Nike,  or  Nike  Apte- 

ros,  14,  22,  37. 
Temple  of  Athena  Polias,  see  Erech- 

theion. 
Temple  of  Olympian  Zeus,  79. 
Temple    of   Theseus    (so-called),    see 

Theseion. 
Temple  of  the  Winds  (so-called) ,  32  ff. 
Theseion,  5,  37,  38,  39  (fig.). 
Audenarde :  Hotel  de  Ville  (Town  Hall) , 

417. 
Autun :  Roman  Arch,  88,  97. 
Avignon:  Ch.  of  S.  Pierre,  341. 

Palace  of  the  Popes,  276. 
Avila:  Casa  Polentina,  420  (fig.). 

Ch.  of  S.  Thomas,  350. 
Avioth:  Chapel,  338  (figs.). 
Azay-le-Rideau,  Chateau  of,  391,  394. 

B. 
Baalbek:  Architectural  details,  119. 
Circular  Temple,  79. 
Temple  of  Jupiter,  77  (fig.),  78  (fig.). 
Bamberg:  Cath,,  170,  226. 
Bapara :   Roman  Arch,  89. 
Baptisteries,  early,  120. 
Barbas,  Geronimo,  500. 
Barcelona:  Cath.,  278. 
Ch.  of  S.  Agata,  133. 
Ch.  of  S.  M.  del  Mar,  282. 
Ch.  of  S.  M.  del  Pi,  282. 
Barozzi,  Giacomo,  see  Vignola. 
Basilicas,  Christian,  120  ff.;   see  also  under 
Rome. 
Roman,  their  construction,  71,83,  120; 
see  also  Rome,  Basilica  of  Maxen- 
tius  and  Constantine,  Basilica  Ulpia; 
their  uses,  83  ;   those  of  Syria,  66. 
Their  simple  and  unarchitectural  char- 
acter, 130  ff. 


Bassai :  Ruined  Temple,  7,  37. 
Bastides,  221. 
Bath:  Abbey  Ch.,  301. 
Beauvais:  Cath.,  209,  393. 

Hotel  de  Ville,  417. 

Houses,  402. 
Belem:  Convent,  351. 
Benevento  :  Arch  of  Trajan,  87  (fig-),  106. 
Bergama:  see  Pergamon. 
Bergamo :  Colleoni  Chapel,  376. 
Berlin :  Palace,  the  Royal,  507. 

Palace  of  Charlottenburg,  509,  5x0,  514. 
Bernini,  G.  L.,  473,  476,  477,  544. 
Besangon :  Roman  Arch,  89. 
Beverley:  Minster  Ch.,  298  (fig.). 
Beziers:  Cath.,  265  n. 
Biella:  Chapel,  133  (fig.) 
Bijapur,  Central  India :  Great  Dome  at,  522. 
Birmingham:   Ashton  Hall,  445. 
Blenheim  Castle,  533. 
Blickling  Hall,  445. 

Blois:  Chateau,  418;  arcades  of,  353; 
Salle  des  Etats  in,  2t2  ;  wing  of 
Francis  I.,  397  (fig.);  wing  of 
Louis  XII.,  395,  410. 

Hotel  d'AUuye,  395. 
Bloxham :  Ch.,  297,  298. 
Bologna:   Ch.   of  S.  Petronio,  307  (fig.), 

308  (fig.),  310,  311,  312,319. 
Bordeaux:  Cath.  (S.  Andre),  263. 

Tour  Pey-Berland,  332. 
Borromini,  School  of,  492,  500. 
Boston :  Ch.  of  S.  Botolph,  tower,  358. 
Bourg-en-Bresse :   Ch.  of  Brou,  351,  393, 

417. 
Bourges:  Cath.,  209,225,257,308,319,475. 

House  of  Jacques  Coeur,  342. 
Bradford-on-Avon  :  "  The  Duke's  House," 

440,  441. 
Bramante,  Donate,  374,  384,  419,  453. 
Bramhall,  Manor  House  of,  446. 
Bramshill,  Manor  Ho.  of,  441  (fig.),  448. 
Branchidai :  Temple  of  Apollo,  24,  37. 
Brandenburg :  Cath.  (SS.  Peter  and  Paul), 
■  231. 

Ch.  of  S.  Katharine,  355,  356. 


INDEX 


567 


Brescia :  Ch.  of  the  Miracoli,  376. 
Brindisi :   Roman  Memorial  Column,  92. 
Bristol :  Cath.,  301. 
Brosse,  Salomon  de,  414. 
Brou,  see  Bourg-en-Bresse. 
Bruand,  Liberal,  484. 
Bruchsal:  Schloss,  512  (fig.)- 
Bruehl:  Schloss,  512,  514. 
Bruges :  Ch.  of  S.  Sauveur,  283. 
Brunellesco,  367  ff.,  372,  373. 
Brussels :  Cath.,  283. 

Ch.  of  S.  Gudule,  226. 

Hotel  de  Ville,  348. 

Houses    seventeenth    and    eighteenth 
centuries,  498. 
Brympton  House,  450. 
Builders  in  the  Middle  Ages,  225. 
Bullant,  Jean,  404,  406,  538. 
Bulla  Regia :   Ruins,  89. 
Buonarroti,  Michelangelo,  466  ff. 
Burgos :  Cath.,  225,  424. 
Burleigh-House,  442. 
Bussy:  Chateau,  395,  399  (fig.). 
Buttress-System,  198  ff. 
Byzantine    Architecture     compared    with 
Romanesque,  112. 

Has  little  regard  for  exterior,  145. 


Cahors:  Ch.  of  S.  Etienne,  159. 
Cambridge :    King's  College  Chapel,  364, 

365- 

College  Buildings  of  Tudor  style,  365. 

Senate  House,  534. 
Campbell,  Colin,  537. 
Canterbury:  Cath.,  238,  302,  364,  535. 
Cape  Colonna,  7. 
Caprarola,  471. 
Capua:  Amphitheatre,  no, 
Carcassonne :     Cath.     (S.    Nazaire),    263 
(fig.),  266,  268  (fig.),  289,  290,  293. 
Carlisle:  Cath.,  243  (fig.),  245,  298  (fig.). 
Carpentras  :   Roman  Arch,  89. 
Carr,  John,  535. 
Caserta :  Palace,  544. 
Castle  Howard,  530  ff. 


Cathedrals,  causes  of  their  popularity  in 

the  twelfth  century,  205. 
Cavaillon :  Roman  Arch,  89. 
Certosa,  near  Pavia,  322,  323,  375   (fig.), 

378.  379- 
Chambers,  Sir  VVilHam,  535,  536. 
Chambiges,  Pierre,  410. 
Chambord,  Chateau  of,  392,  396  (fig.),  397, 

410,417,475. 
Chartres:  Cath.,  132,  209,  219,  338,  349. 

Hotel  Montescot,  412. 
Chateaudun:  Chateau,  391. 

Dwelling,  277,  278  (fig.). 
Chatillon,  Claude  du,  410. 
Chatsworth,  Manor  House  of,  529. 
Chaumont,  Chateau  of,  391. 
Chester  :  Houses  in,  446. 
Chiaravalle :   Conventual  Ch.,  252. 
Chieti,  Ch.  near,  see  Santa  Maria  d'Arbona. 
Church  plan,  the,  of  the  Romanesque  and 
Gothic  types,  149,  177,  312,-313. 

Under  the  Renaissance,  380. 

See  also  Basilica,  Baptistery,  Round  Ch. 
Churches,  Parish,  of  France,  210. 
Churriguerra,  Josef  de,  500. 

Style  introduced  by,  500. 
Cividale:   Ch.    of   S.    M.    in  Valle,    134 

(fig.)- 
Clermont-Ferrand:  Cath.,  263. 

Ch.  of  N.  D.  du  Port,  151,  154  (fig,). 
Cobham  Hall,  442,  517, 
Cologne :  Cath. ,  209,  222,  232,  308. 

Ch.  of  S.  Gereon,  148  (fig,), 

Ch.  of  S.  Martin,  149,  226. 

Rathhaus,  432  (fig.). 

Roman  Tower  (so-called),  153. 
Colomb,  Michel,  394, 
Colour    applied    to    buildings,   see    Poly- 

chromy. 
Como:  Cath.,  322,  376. 
Constantinople :  Ch,  of  H.  Sophia,  136, 138, 

139    (fig-)>    H3)     144.    145.    148, 

304  n.,  368,  527. 
Ch.  of  S.  Irene,  136,  181. 
Ch,  of  SS.  Sergios  and  Baccbos,  136, 

146, 


568 


INDEX 


Constantinople  :  Ch.  of  the  Theotokos,  136, 
182  (fig.). 

Cisterns,  142,  174,  202. 
Cori :  Temple,  52,  75  (fig.),  and  see  Fig.  12. 
Corinth :   Ruins,  7. 

Corinthian    Style,    decorative     design     of 
Greek,  30  ff.,  36. 

Roman,  36. 
Cortona:  Ch.  of  S.  M.  Nuova,  382  (fig.). 

Ch.  of  the  Madonna  del  Calcinajo,  382. 
Coucy  Castle,  222. 
Courtrai:  Hotel  de  Ville,  417. 
Coutances :  Cath.,  209. 
Cremona :  Casa  Stanga,  376. 
Cussy :  Roman  Monument,  92. 

D. 
Dakkel,  Oasis  of:  Roman  Arch,  89. 
Danzig  :  City  Gate,  432. 

Houses,  430. 

Rathhaus  of  the  Rechtstadt,  432. 

Zeughaus,  431  (fig.). 
Decoration  by  coloured  materials  :  Roman, 
107,  108. 

Romanesque,  153. 

Italian,  fourteenth  century,  318. 
Decoration  of  Interiors,  107. 

Byzantine,  143. 

Christian  Basilicas,  131. 

Roman  public  places  of  amusements, 
III. 
Deir  Siman ;    Late  Roman  Gateway,   115 

(fig.). 
Denham,  Sir  John,  518. 
Dieppe :  Ch.  of  S.  Jacques,  332. 
Dijon:   Hotel  de  Vogue,  412. 
Dinkelsbuehl :  Wooden  framed  houses,  427. 
Dixmude  :  Jube  in  Ch.,  417. 
Dol :  Tomb  in  Cath.,  394. 
Doric  Style :  Buildings,  1 3. 

Decorative    design    of,    18    (fig.),    19 
(fig.),  20. 

Has  no  architectural  sculpture,  29. 

Structure  of,  15,  16  (fig.),  17  (fig.). 

See  Athens :  Parthenon. 
Douai:  Town  Hall  (Hotel  de  Ville),  348. 


Dresden:  Ch.,  Catholic,  of  the  Court,  511 

(fig.).  514. 
Palace  "Zwinger,"  510,  511. 
Duderstadt :   Rathhaus,  428. 
Durham:    Cath.,   the   galilee,    178   (fig.). 

305  (fig-). 
Dwellings:    English,    eighteenth   century, 

450.  530.  535.  537- 
French,  eighteenth  century,  492. 
Greek,  45  ff. 
Mediaeval,  213,  221,  275  ff.  (figs.),  342 

(fig.),  344  (figs.). 
Roman,  109  ff. 
Timber   framed,  401,  402   (fig.),  427, 

428,  445,  446. 

E. 
Ecouen,  Chateau  of,  392,  402,  403  (fig.), 

409,  410,  475. 
Eleusis:  Telesterion,  12,  55  n.,  I20n. 

Temple    of    Artemis    (so-called),    12 

(fig.). 

Elizabethan  Style,  301,  357,  437  ff.,  518. 

El  Kasr :  Roman  Arch,  89. 

Ely:    Cath.,  278,  303   (fig.),    304  n.,    321, 
364. 

Entablature,  its  construction  and  nature,  1 7. 

Ephesus :  Temple  of  Artemis,  24,  37. 

Epidauros :  Irregular  arrangement  of  build- 
ings, 49. 
The  Tholos,  13,  30,  3^  (fig.),  34. 

Erfurt:  Cath.,  290  (fig.),  291  (fig.),  293. 
Palace,  509. 

Escorial,  Palace  of  the,  425. 

Etruscan  Architecture :  Buildings,  xii,  xiii. 
Temple  plan,  xii,  xiii,  80. 

Eu:  Ch.,  342  (fig.). 

Evreux:  Cath.,  332  (fig.). 

F. 
Fairford :  Ch.,  360. 
Ferte-Bernard,  La,  Castle  of,  222. 
Filarete,  Antonio,  371. 
Florence:  Baptistery,  318,  368. 

Bell-tower  of  Cath.,  317. 

Bridge  of  SS.  Trinita,  472. 


INDEX 


569 


Florence  :  Campanile,  see  Bell-tower. 
Cath.,   149,   178,  307   (fig.),  308,  311 
(fig.),  312,  317  ff.,  367;   Dome  of, 
368,  527;   Statue  in,  458. 
Ch.  of  S.  Croce,  Pazzi  Chapel,  369  (fig.). 
Ch.  of  S.  Lorenzo,  369,  373.  539. 
Ch.  of  S.  M.  degli  Angeli,  369. 
Ch.  of  S.  M.  Novella,  254  (fig.),  307, 

3^o>  319.  372- 

Ch.  of  S.  Spirito,  369,  371,  373. 

Hospital  of  the   Innocents,  see  Inno- 
centi. 

Innocenti,  Spedale  degli,  371, 

Loggia  dei  Lanzi,  314,  315  (fig.),  317, 
320. 

Loggia  di  S.  Paolo,  371. 

Palazzo  Pazzi-Quaratesi,  370-373. 

Palazzo  Pitti,  472. 

Palazzo  Riccardi,  371,  373,  374. 

Palazzo  Rucellai,  372,  373. 

Palazzo  Vecchio,  376. 
Flying  Buttress,  system  of,  151,  198- ff. 

Used  as  mere  ornament,  358. 
Fontainebleau :  Chateau,  409,  415. 
Fossanova :  Buildings  of  Abbey,  247,  248 

(fig.),  250  (fig.). 
Fotheringhay :  Ch.,  358. 
Fountains  Abbey,  236. 
Frankfurt    (a.    Main) :    Tower    of    Cath., 

354. 
Freiburg-im-Breisgau :  Minster  Ch.,  229  n., 

233  (fig-)- 
Fuessen :  Schloss,  436. 
Fulda :  Ch.  of  S.  Michael,  148. 


Gaillon,  Chateau  of,  393,  394. 
Gainford  Hall,  443  (fig.). 
Galliano:  Chapel,  134. 
Genoa :  Palazzo  Brignole,  539. 

Palazzo  Carrega,  470. 

Palazzo  Doria-Tursi,  470. 

Palazzo  Durazzo,  471. 

Palazzo  Sauli,  470. 

Villa  Andrea  Doria,  470. 

Villa  Cambiaso,  470. 


Gerasa :  Roman  Arch,  88. 

Roman  remains,  80,  81. 
Germigny-les-Pres :  Ch.,  152. 
Gerona:  Cath.,  278,  349. 
Ghent :     Houses,   seventeenth    and    eigh- 
teenth centuries,  498. 

Town  Hall  (Hotel  de  Ville),  417. 
Gibbons,  Grinling,  535. 
Gibbs,  James,  521,  533. 
Giocondo,  Fra,  374,  384. 
Girgenti :  see  Akragas. 
Gjolbaschi :  Sacred  enclosure,  37. 
Glastonbury  Abbey,  236,  237. 
Gloucester:  Cath.,  300,  364;   Cloister  of, 

364- 
Goujon,  Jean,  407. 

Granada :  Ch.  of  the  Carthusians,  Sacristy, 
502. 
Palace  of  Charles  V.,  422  (fig.). 
Granja,  La:  Palace,  504. 
Greek  Architecture :    Buildings  of  excep- 
tional character,  29,  42  ff. 
Its   forms   used   by    Romans   as   mere 

decorations,  56  ff.,  92,  94. 
Principles  of  design,  48  ff. 
The  modern  study  of,  2  ff. 
Used   by  the  neo-classic   architects  in 
the  same  way,  95,  107. 
Greeks,  artistic  sense  of,  21. 

Colonies  and  possessions  of,  outside  of 
Greece,  i. 
Greenwich :  Hospital,  528. 
Guadalajara:    Palacio  del   Infantado,  351 

(fig-)- 

H. 

Haddon  Hall,  438. 

Hal:  Town  Hall,  419. 

Halberstadt:  Wooden  framed  houses,  357. 

428. 
Halicarnassos :  Tombs,  47,  48. 
Hampton  Court  Palace,  528. 
Hanover:  Rathhaus,  357  (fig.). 
Hard  wick  Hall,  442. 
Hatfield  House,  442. 
Hawksmoor,  Nicholas,  535. 
Heidelberg :  Castle,  434,  436. 


570 


INDEX 


Heidelberg  Inn,  "Zum  Ritter,"  435. 
Herculaneum  :  Villa  of  the  Papyri,  1 10. 
Hildesheim :  Wooden  framed  houses,  428 

(fig.)- 
Hoernitz :   Schloss,  436. 
Houses,  see  Dwellings. 


Ingestre  Hall,  442. 

Interior,  architecture  of  the,  in  the  Roman 

epoch,  107. 
Ionic  Buildings,  decorative  designs  of,  25 

ff.  (figs.)- 
Structure  of,  27,  28  (fig.)- 
Isidores,  139. 

J- 

Jacobean  Style,  437,  446,  518. 
James,  John,  535. 
Jerash,  see  Gerasa. 
Jones,  Inigo,  439,  448  ff. 
Josselin,  Chateau  of,  392. 

K. 
Kalat    Siman :     Convent    of    S.    Simeon 

Stylites,  115,  117  (fig.),  118. 
Kalb  Louzeh:  Ch.,  116  (fig.),  117. 
Kirkstall  Abbey,  236. 
Knidos :  Tombs,  47. 
Koeln,  see  Cologne. 


Lambese,  see  Lamboesis. 

Lamboesis  :  Roman  pretorium,  97  (fig.). 

Laon :  Cath.,  209. 

Lebrun,  Charles,  477,  493. 

Leipzig:  Old  Exchange,  505. 

Lemercier,  Jacques,  414,  415,  491. 

Leon :  Cath.,  225. 

Leoni,  Leone,  539. 

Lerida:  Cath.,  223. 

Lescot,  Pierre,  406,  410,  415,  474,  538. 

Levau,  Frangois,  477,  492. 

Lichfield :  Cath.,  298. 

Lierre:  Jube  in  Ch.,  417. 

Limoges :  Cath.,  263. 


Limyra:  Tombs,  47. 

Lincoln:    Cath.,  238,  239,  240  (fig.),  241 
(fig.),  243    (fig.),  297  (fig.),  29S, 

303- 
Lodi :  Ch.  of  the  Incoronata,  382. 
London:      Banqueting      House      (Royal 
Chapel),    448,   449. 

Cath.  (S.  Paul),  the  old  building,  450  ; 
the  later  Ch.,  490,  511,  519,  521, 
522  (fig.),  524,  525  (fig.),  527,  535. 

Ch.  of  S.  Clement's  Danes,  533. 

Ch.  of  S.  Dunstan,  518. 

Ch.  of  S.  George,  Hanover  Square,  534. 

Ch.  of  S.  Giles  in  the  Fields,  533. 

Ch.  of  S.  Leonard  Shoreditch,  533. 

Ch.  of  S.  Martin  in  the  Fields,  533. 

Ch.  of  S.  Mary  le  Bow,  521  (fig.). 

Ch.  of  S.  Mary  le  Strand,  533  (fig.). 

Hamilton  Place,  537. 

Houses,  530,  537. 

Houses,  by  Inigo  Jones,  450. 

Lambeth  Palace,  517. 

Mansfield  Street,  537. 

Old  Burlington  Gate,  537. 

Portland  Place,  537. 

Somerset  House,  535-537  (fig-)- 

Stratford  Place,  537. 

Temple  Bar,  519  (fig.). 

Westminster  Abbey,  349,  518  ;  Chapel 
of  Henry  VII.,  364,  438. 

Westminster  Hall,  306  (fig.). 

York  Gate,  450. 
Longford  Castle,  442,  443. 
Longleat  Manor  House,  441. 
Lorsche:  Abbey  Ch.,  153. 
Louvain :    Ch.    of    S.    Michael,   498,    500 

(fig-). 
Hotel  de  Ville,  348-9,  417. 
Louviers,  332. 
Lucca:  Cath.  (S.  Martino),  313  (fig.). 

M. 
Machuca,  Pedro,  422. 
Maderno,  Carlo,  468,  544. 
Madrid  :  City  Gate,  504. 

Royal  Palace,  503,  504  (fig.). 


INDEX 


571 


Magdeburg:   Cath.,  227  (fig.).  229  (fig.). 
231. 
Rathhaus,  507  (fig.).  516. 
Magnesia :  Temple  of  Artemis,  24. 
Mans,  Le :  Cath.,  209,  280. 
Mansart,  Fran9ois,  414. 
Mansart,  Jules  Hardouin,  479,  487. 
Mantua:  Ch.  of  S.  Andrea,  372  (fig.),  373, 

538- 

Palazzo  Te,  45 1 . 
Marburg :  Ch.  of  S.  Elizabeth,  232. 
Marly,  Chateau  of,  390. 
Mayence:  CatH.,  170,  171,  226. 
Mechlin:  Cath.  (S.  Rombold),  348. 
Meillant,  Chateau  of,  392. 
Melassa,  see  Mylasa. 
Metapontum  :  Ruined  temple,  7. 
Michelangelo,  see  Buonarroti. 
Michelozzo,  371,  374,  380. 
Milan  :  Bank  of  the  Medici,  375. 

Cath.,  319  ff. 

Ch.  of  S.  Ambrogio,   122,    166   (fig.), 
170,  252,  304  n.,  320,  321. 

Ch.  of  S.  Eustorgio,  380. 

Ch.  of  S.  Maria  delle  Grazie,  376,  379, 

541- 

Palazzo  Pazzi,  539. 

Villa  Belgiojoso,  545. 
Miletos,  Great  Temple,  see  Branchidai. 
Mons :  Ch.  of  S.  Waudru,  348. 
Montacute  House,  442. 
Montepulciano  :  Ch.  of  S.  Biagio,  382  (fig.). 
Montmajour:  Chapel,  134  (fig.). 
Mont  Saint  Michel:  Ch.,  332. 
Monza :  Cath.,  322. 
Moreton  Old  Hall,  446  (fig.). 
Mosaic,  109,  130,  131,  143,  145. 
Moulins :  Former  College  of  Jesuits,  now 

Hospital,  412  (fig.). 
Munich:  Ch.  of  S.  Michael,  432  (fig.). 

Street  front,  516  (fig.). 
Musmiyeh  :  Pretorium,  68  (fig.),  382. 
Mykenai,  or  Mycenae :  Gate  of  the  Lions,  xi. 

Ruins,  X, 

Treasury  of  Atreus,  xi. 
Mylasa :  Tomb,  35,  47. 


N. 
Nantes :  Tomb  in  Cath.,  394. 
Narbonne:   Cath.,  209,  263,  265  n.,  329 
(fig-).  330;   Cloister  of,  332  (fig.). 
Neuss :  Ch.  of  S.  Quirinus,  229. 
Ntmes:  Amphitheatre,  70,  no. 

Maison  Carree,  75  (fig.),  105. 

Nymphseum,  67  ff.,  113. 

Roman  Arch,  87. 
Nocera:  Ch.,  126  (fig.). 
Nogent-sur-Seine  :  Ch.,  404  (fig.). 
Norman    Architecture,    i.e.,  English    Ro- 
manesque, 235. 
Norwich:  Cath.,  301. 
Notre   Dame  de  I'Epine :    Ch.,  335,  336, 

338. 
Noyon  :  Cath.,  206  (fig.),  207  (fig.),  310. 

Town  Hall  (Hotel  de  Villa),  348,  392. 
Nuremberg:    Ch.  of  Our  Lady   (Frauen- 
kirche),  288. 

Ch.  of  S.  Lorenz,  288. 

Ch.  of  S.  Sebaldus,  288  (fig.),  290,  293. 
Nymphseum:  Near  Rome,  65. 

At  Ntmes,  67  (fig.),  113. 
Nymphenburg  Palace,  506. 

O. 
Olympia  :  Ruined  buildings,  7. 
Temple  of  Zeus,  4, 10,41. 
Temple  of  Zeus  compared  with  Parthe- 
non, 10  (fig.). 
Treasury  of  the  Megarians,  41. 
Other  Treasuries,  49. 
Oppenheim :    Ch.   of    S.    Katharine,    286 

(fig-)- 
Oppenordt,  Gilles  Marie,  492. 
Orange  :   Roman  theatre,  70. 

Triumphal  Arch,  87. 
Orders,    the,    in    Columnar    architecture, 
102  ff. 
See  Doric,  Ionic,  Corinthian. 
Orme,  Philibert  de  1',  407,  409,  477. 
Oxford :  Cath.,  364. 

Christ  Ch.  College,  Vestibule  of  Hall, 

362  (fig.)  ;   Hall,  438. 
College  buildings,  their  style,  365,  438. 


572 


INDEX 


Oxford :  Divinity  School,  360. 
Radcliffe  Library,  534. 
S.  John's  College,  438,  439. 


Padua:  Venetian  Gothic,  325. 
Psestum  :  Basilica  (so-called),  12. 

Buildings  at,  6,  385,  531. 

Temple  of  Poseidon  (so-called),  9. 
Painters :    Italian,  precursors  of  the  Re- 
naissance, 366,  367. 

Of  the  fifteenth  century,  367. 
Palermo  :  Ch.  La  Martorana,  1 74. 
Palladian    Style:    in    England,   449-518, 

529,  537;  in  Vicenza,  460  ff. 
Palladio,  Andrea,  460  ff.,  518. 
Palmyra:  Great  Colonnade,  80,81  (fig.)- 

Temple  of  the  Sun,  80,  96. 

Triumphal  Archway  (so-called),  87. 
Parenzo :  Basilica,  146. 
Paris :  Bank  of  France,  the  Gilded  Gallery, 

493- 
Cath.   (Notre  Dame),  207,  215  (fig.). 

217  (figO»  227,  268  (fig.),  496. 
Ch.  of  S.  Etienne  du  Mont,  404  (fig.). 
Ch.  of  S.  Eustache,  401. 
Ch.  of  S.  Genevieve  (Pantheon),  481, 

487,  488  ff. 
Ch.    of  S.    Germain    I'Auxerrois,   328 

(fig-). 
Ch.  of  S.  Gervais,  415. 
Ch.  of  S.  Louis  des  Invalides,  487. 
Ch.  of  S.  Madeleine,  490,  491. 
Ch.  of  S.  Paul  and  S.  Louis,  496. 
Ch.  of  S.  Philippe  du  Roule,  496. 
Ch.  of  S.  Roch,  415   (fig.),  432,  481, 

491,  492,  522. 
Ch.  of  S.  Sulpice,  491,  492,  495,  496. 
Ch.  of  the  Invalides    (Domical),  487, 

488  (fig.),  527. 
Ch.  of  the  Sorbonne,  414. 
Ch.  of  the  Val  de  Grace,  415. 
Ecole  de  Droit,  496. 
Ecole  de  Medecine,  496. 
Ecole  Militaire,  485. 
Halle  au  Ble,  496. 


Paris :  Hotel  de  Carnavalet,  409. 
Hotel  de  Cluny,  134,  344  (fig.). 
Hotel  de  Lavalette,  412. 
Hotel   des    Invalides,    484;     see    also 

Church  of  the  Invalides. 
Hotel  des  Rohan-Soubise,  493   (fig.). 

Pavilion  of,  493  (fig.)- 
Hotel  de  la  Tremouille,  342,  344. 
Louvre,  474-479,  485  ;    colonnade  of, 

390,  477  ff.,  482,  511;  court  of,  409, 

410,  415,  486;    gallery  of  Apollo, 

493- 
Ministere   de  la  Marine,  484  n.,  485 

(fig.),  486. 
Mint,  496. 
Odeon,  496. 

Palace  of  the  Legion  of  Honour,  496. 
Palace  of  the  Luxemburg,  414  (fig.)- 
Palace  of  the  Tuileries,  409. 
Palace  on  the  Island  (destroyed),  222. 
Palais  Royale,  414. 
Place  Dauphine,  410,  419. 
Place  des  Victoires,  485. 
Place  des  Vosges  (Place  Royal),  410, 

419. 
Place  Vendome,  485. 
Sainte  Chapelle,   198,  211   (fig.),  215 

(fig-).  257.  266,  283,  291. 
Thermae  of  Emperor  Julian,  65,  134. 
Tower    of    S.    Jacques    la    Boucherie, 

33^- 
Park  Hall,  446. 

Pavia  :  Ch.  of  S.  Michele,  167  (fig.),  170, 
171,  252. 

Certosa  near,  see  Certosa. 
Pereal,  Jean,  394. 
Pergamon  :  Altar  of  Zeus,  25,  37. 
Perigueux:  Ch.  of  S.  Etienne,  159. 

Ch.  of  S.  Front,  157  (fig.),  159. 
Perpendicular  Gothic,  298  ff.,  446. 

Its  long  duration,  357,  358,  362. 
Perrault,  Claude,  477. 
Perugia :  Etruscan  remains,  xiii,  97. 
Peterborough:  Cath.,  175  (fig.),  176  (fig.). 
Pilasters  used  decoratively  by  the  Romans, 
96. 


INDEX 


573 


Plateresco  Style,  424. 

Pointed  Arch :    Earliest  constructive  use, 
192. 

May  be  considered  as  two  half-arches, 
196. 

Should  have  no  keystone,  197  n.  (fig.)- 

Used  decoratively,  181. 
Poitiers:  Baptistery,  153  (fig.)- 

Hall  of  Counts  of  Poitou,  276. 
Pola:  Amphitheatre,  70,  no. 

Triumphal  Arch,  89. 
Pollak,  or  Polack,  Leopold,  545. 
Polychromy,    18,   45,    90,    107,   108,    318, 
428. 

By  means  of  coloured  materials  used  in 
the  exterior,  153,  401. 
Pompadour  Style,  see  Rococo. 
Pompeii :  Basilica,  71. 

Dwellings,  no. 

Roman  theatre,  70. 

Temples,  77,  83. 
Porticoes,  of  Roman  epoch,  80. 
Porto  Mandri,  see  Thorikos. 
Potsdam:   Private  buildings,  516, 

Royal  palaces,  515. 
Pozzuoli :  Temple  of  Serapis,  79,  83. 
Prague :  Karlshofer  Kirche,  304  n. 

Palace  Czernin,  505. 
Priene :  Temple  of  Athena,  24. 
Primaticcio,  406. 

Q. 

Querqueville :  Chapel,  1 34. 
Quimper:  Cath.,  332. 

R. 

Raphael,  384,  386,  387. 

Ratisbon    (Regensburg) :    Rathhaus,  432 

(fig-)- 
Ravenna:  Byzantine  Churches,  136. 
Chapel  of  Galla  Placidia,  145. 
Ch.  of  S.  ApoUinare  in  Classe,  145. 
Ch.  of  S.  ApoUinare  Nuovo,  145. 
Ch.  of  S.  Giovanni  in  Fonte,  145. 
Ch.  of  SS.  Nazario  e  Celso,  145. 
Ch.  of  S.  Vitale,  145,  148. 


Reims:  Cath.,  209,  268  (fig.). 

House  of  the  Musicians,  222  (fig.). 
Roman  Gateway,  87. 
Renaissance,  the :  the  classical,  its  causes, 

365.  366. 
Renaissance    Style    in    Architecture :     in 
Italy,  367,  368  ;  proceeded  by  paint- 
ing and  sculpture  of  new  character, 
366  ;   the  earliest  architects  of,  371, 

373- 
In  France,  391 ;  completely  established, 
395  ;  varied  details  of,  abandoned 
by  later  classic,  484. 
Restorations,  suggested  for  Roman  build- 
ings, III. 
Ribera,  Pedro  de,  500. 
Rimini :  Arch  of  Augustus,  89. 

Malatesta  Temple,  or  Ch.  of  S.  Fran- 
cesco, 371,  372. 
Ripon :  Minster  Ch.,  237. 
Rococo  Style,  492,  495,  496. 
Roman  Architectural  Design :    the  official 
style  and  exceptions   to  it,  96   ff., 
100  ff.,  113,  115. 
Construction,  53  ff.,  59  ff.,  66,  71. 
Decorative  system,  56  ff.,  60  ff.,   107, 
108  ff 
Romanesque  Building,  instances  of  under 
the  Empire,  96  ff.,  99,  113. 
Compared  with  Byzantine,  112. 
Growth   of   during   the   decay   of  the 

Empire,  114  ff. 
Lingers  late  in  Germany,  227. 
Meaning  of  the  term,  112. 
That  of  Syria  had  no  permanent  re- 
sults, 119. 
Unskilful  in  western  Europe,  128. 
Romano,  Giulio,  451. 

Rome:  Arch  of  Constantine,  87,  94  (fig.), 
121. 
Arch  of  Drusus,  88. 
Arch  of  Gallienus,  88. 
Arch  of  Janus  Quadrifrons,  88. 
Arch  of  Marcus  Aurelius  (destroyed), 

106. 
Arch  of  Septimius  Severus,  87. 


574 


INDEX 


Rome :  Arch  of  Titus,  88,  102,  103. 
Arch  of  Trajan  (destroyed),  106. 
Basilica  of  Maxentius  and  Constantine, 

60,  71. 
Basilica  of  S.  Clemente,  122,  124  (fig.)- 
Basilica  of  S.  John  Latcran,  121,  124, 

128,  538. 
Basilica  of  S.  Lorenzo,  121   (fig.).  128 

(fig-)- 
Basilica  of  S.  M.  Maggiore,  121,  538. 
Basilica  of  S.  M.  in  Trastevere,  121. 
Basilica  of  S.  Paul,  121. 
Basilica   of  S.    Peter  on  the  Vatican, 

121. 
Basilica  of  S.  Peter  in  Vincolis,  121, 
Basilica  Ulpia,  72  (fig.),  73,  81. 
Castel  di  Sant'  Angelo,  70. 
Ch.  of  S.  Costanza,  126  (fig.)- 
Ch.  of  S.  M.  degU  Angeli,  63  (fig.). 
Ch.  of  S.  Peter   (the  new  Ch.),  384, 

387,  473,  476 ;    notice  of,  466  ff. 

(figs.),  522,  527. 
Ch.  of  S.  Stefano  Rotondo,  126. 
Ch.  of  S.  Urbano,  65. 
Circuses  (ancient),  IIO. 
Cloaca  Maxima,  xiii. 
Colonnade  of  Piazza  San  Pietro,  543, 

544  (fig-)- 
Colosseum,  70,  no,  386. 
Column  of  Marcus  Aurelius,  89,  90. 
Column  of  Phokas,  92. 
Column  of  Trajan,  81,  89,  90. 
Fora    of    the    Emperors,    72,    81,   83, 

89  n. 
Forum  of  Augustus,  83. 
Forum  of  Marcus  Aurelius,  89. 
Forum  of  Nerva,  386. 
Forum  of  Trajan,  72  (fig.),  81,  102. 
Forum  of  Vespasian,  83. 
Grotto  of  Egeria,  65. 
House  of  Raphael  (destroyed),  453. 
Palace  of  Domitian,  65. 
Palatine  Hill,  buildings  on,  70,  no. 
Palazzo  dei  Conservatori,  471  (fig.). 
Palazzo  Farnese,  470. 
Palazzo  Stoppani-Vidoni,  387  (fig.). 


Rome,   Pantheon,    53  ff.,    57    (fig.),    71, 

304  n.,  36S. 
Sette  Sale,  Le,  65. 
Temple    of   Antoninus   and    Faustina, 

76. 
Temple  of  Castor  and  Pollux,  79. 
Temple  of  Concord,  79. 
Temple  of  Fortuna  Virilis,  76. 
Temple  of  Jupiter  on  the  Capitol,  So. 
Temple  of  Mars  Ultor,  79. 
Temple  of  Minerva  Medica  (so-called), 

58,  368. 
Temple  of  Saturn,  104. 
Temple  of  Trajan  (destroyed),  79. 
Temple   of  Venus  and  Rome,  65,   70, 

83,  120  n. 
Temple  of  Vespasian,  76. 
Temples  not  named,  79. 
Theatre  of  Marcellus,  70,  92  (fig.),  94, 

95,  104. 
Thermae  of  Caracalla,   58,  60,  61,  62 

(fig-)- 
Thermae  of  Diocletian,    60,   63  (fig.), 

65- 

Thermae  of  Titus,  65. 

Tomb  of  Hadrian,  70. 

Tomb  of  Caecilia  Metella,  70. 

Vatican  Palace,  Loggie,  384. 
Rondelet,  Jean  Baptiste,  490, 
Roofs,  homogeneous,  142. 

Timber,  275,  306. 
Rossi,  Rosso,  406. 

Rothenburg :  Ancient  buildings,  427. 
Roueiha :   Ch.,  116. 
Rouen :  Cath.,  209,  273,  330. 

Ch.  of  S.  Maclou,  330  (fig.),  331,  338, 
393- 

Ch.  of  S.  Ouen,  260-263  (figO- 

Dwellings,  346  (fig.),  402  (fig.). 

Palais  de  Justice,  342,  393. 

Tombs  in  Cath.,  395. 

Tower  of  S.  Andre,  338. 

Tower  of  S.  Laurent,  338. 
Round  Churches,  124  ff.;    see  also    Bap- 
tisteries. 
Rushton  Hall,  443,  445. 


INDEX 


575 


Saint  Avit-Senieur :  Ch.,  1 60. 

Saint    Chamas:    Arches   and   bridge,    86 

(fig-),  97- 
Saint  David's :  Cath.,  237. 
Saint   Denis:    Tomb   in   the  Abbey  Ch., 

395- 
Saintes :  Ch.  of  S.  Eutrope,  151. 

Roman  Arch,  89,  97  (fig.). 
Saintes  Maries,  Les :  Ch.,  263  n. 
Saint  Genou  :  Ch.,  152. 
Saint  Georges  de  Boscherville :  Abbey  Ch., 

149. 
Saint  Gilles:  House,  221. 
Saint    Honorat    des    Lerins,    Island    of: 

Chapel,  134. 
Saint  Jean  de  Cole:  Ch.,  160. 
Saint  Pol-de-Leon  :  Cath.,  334. 

Kritzker  Tower,  334. 
Saint  Remy :  Roman  Arch,  89. 

Roman  Monument,  92  (fig.). 
Saint  Riquier  :  Ch.,  335. 
Salamanca:  Ayuntamiento,  501,  502. 

Ch.  of  S.  Domingo,  420,  424;  Cloister, 
421. 

Irish  College,  420. 

University,  421,  422. 
Salisbury:  Cath.,  238,  239,  245. 
Salona :  Palace  of  Diocletian  (the  modern 

Spalato),  100,  119. 
Salonika:  Ch.  of  S.  Demetrios,  136. 

Ch.  of  S.  Elias,  136. 

Ch.  of  S.  George,  136,  138,  146. 

Ch.  of  H.  Sophia,  136,  182. 
Sammichele,  453,  464. 
Samothrace :    Arrangement  of  the  build- 
ings in  sacred  enclosure,  49, 

Arsinoeion,  12,  34,  35  (fig-)- 
San  Galgano :  Abbey  Ch.,  250. 
San  Gallo,  Antonio  da,  386,  470. 
Sansovino,  Jacopo,  454,  460,  464. 
Santa  Maria  d'Arbona,  250. 
Santiago  de  Compostella :   Cath.  and  build- 
ings adjoining,  425,  426  ;   front  of 
Cath.,  501. 
Scamozzi,  Vincenzo,  464. 


Scarpagnino,  Antonio,  464. 
Schleissheim :  Palace,  506. 
Sculptors,  Italian  :  precursors  of  the  Re- 
naissance, 366,  367. 

Of  the  fifteenth  century,  367,  371. 
Sculpture  applied  to  Buildings :  Byzantine, 
144. 

Early  FloreHtine  Renaissance  neglected 
it,  373- 

Early  Romanesque,  153. 

English,  eighteenth  century,  530. 

French,  fifteenth  century,  331,  332; 
richest  toward  the  close,  334  ;  sev- 
enteenth century,  412  ;  eighteenth 
century,  482,  486. 

German,  eighteenth,  508  ff". 

Gothic,  210,  219,  282. 

Greek,  17,  21,  25,  28,  30,  36  ff., 
41. 

Italian,  fourteenth  century,  317,  320, 
326 ;  sixteenth  and  seventeenth 
centuries,  451,  456  ff. 

Later  Romanesque,  178  ff. 

Lombard  architects  introduced  a  new 
form,  374. 

Louvain  Town  Hall,  fifteenth  century, 

349- 

Roman,  58,  87,  90,  102  ff,  121. 

Spanish,  sixteenth  and  seventeenth 
centuries,  424. 

See  also  Arabesque. 
Segesta :  Ruins,  7. 
Selinus:  Ruins,  7. 

Temple,  12,  37. 
Senlis:  Cath.,  209,  219. 
Sens :  Cath.,  209. 

Synodal  Hall,  222. 
Serlio,  Sebastiano,  406. 
Servandony,  Jean  Nicolas,  493,  545. 
Seville:  Ayuntamiento  (Town  Hall),  424. 

Palace  of  S.  Elmo,  501,  502. 
Shakka :  Basilica,  98. 

Pretorium,  98. 
Soissons :  Cath.,  202  (fig.),  209. 

Ch.  of  S.  Jacques  des  Vignes,  336. 
Soufflot,  Jacques  Germain,  490. 


576 


INDEX 


Spalato,  see  Salona. 

Spires,  or  Speyer  :  Cath.,  1 36, 1 70  (fig.)  ,172. 
Spires,  pierced,  233. 
Staindrop:  Ch.,  301  (fig.)- 
Stendal :  Fortifications,  356. 
Stettin:  City  Gate,  512. 
Stone,  dressed,  used  by  the  ancients  with- 
out mortar,  9,  10,  70, 
Strk,  Villa,  539. 
Strasburg:  Cath.,  235,  295  ff.,  348,  354. 

Tower  of  Cath.,  354,  355  ;   compared 
with  Antwerp,  348. 
Stucco :  in  Greek  buildings,  44. 

In  Roman  decorative  sculpture,  106. 
Studenika:  Ch.,  136. 
Stuttgart:   Palace  "Solitude,"  516  (fig.). 
Suevres:  Ch.  of  S.  Lubin,  153. 
Sunion,  Temple  of,  7. 
Susa :  Roman  Arch,  89. 
Syracuse:  Temples,  7,  531. 
Syria :  Stone  buildings  in,  66,  68. 

T. 
Tangermiinde  :  Ch.  of  S.  Stephen,  356. 
Tarragona:  Cath.,  278. 
Taunton :  Ch.  of  Mary  Magdalen,  Tower, 

358  (fig-)- 
Tebessia:   Roman  Arch,  89. 
Temples  :  Doric,  22  ff. 
Doric  Hexastyle,  4. 
Doric  Octostyle,  10. 
Greek,  3  ff.;   arrangement  of,  7;  light- 
ing of,  4;    in   Southern  Italy,  73; 
see    Athens    and    other    names    of 
places. 
Ionic  Dekastyle,  24. 
Roman,  65,  73  ;  their  construction,  71 ; 
circular,  79  ;   restoration  of  one,  83 
(fig.) ;  see  also  under  Rome,  Ntmes, 
and  Baalbeck. 
Teos :  Temple  of  Dionysos,  24. 
Tessenderloo  :  Jube  in  Ch.,  417. 
Thann:  Tower  of  Ch.,  354. 
Theatres :  Greek,  46  ff. 

Of  the  Roman  epoch,  70. 
See  also  Athens,  Odeion. 


Thermje,  of  Caracalla,  58,  60,  61,  62  (fig.). 

Of  Diocletian,  60,  63  (fig.). 

Of  Julian,  65. 

Of  Titus,  65. 

Those  of  Rome,  71. 
Thorikos:  Portico  or  colonnade,  12. 
Tillieres:  Ch.,  404  (fig.),  406  (fig.). 
Timber  Roofs :  English  and  French  com- 
pared, 275,  306. 

Construction,  278. 
Tiryns :  Ruins,  x. 
Tivoli :  Hadrian's  Villa,  1 10. 

Temple,  77,  79. 
Toledo:  Cath.,  279  (fig.),  280  (fig.),  281, 
282,  350. 

Ch.  of  S.  Juan  de  los  Reyes,  351. 
Tomb,  Gothic,  in  Salisbury  Cath.,  245  (fig.). 
Tombs:    English,  of  foreign   work,  show 
classical  feeling,  439. 

French,    first    show    classical    design, 

394- 

Greek,  47. 

ItaHan  Gothic,  325,  326. 

Prehistoric,  xi,  xii. 

Roman,  70,  92. 
Tonnerre :   Hospital,  275. 
Torcello :  Cath.,  146. 

Ch.,  128. 

Ch.  of  S.  Fosca,  146. 
Toulouse :  Ch.  of  S.  Saturnin  or  S.  Sernin, 

Tournai:  Cath.,  177  (fig.),  283. 
Tours:  Cath.,  209,  342  (fig.). 

Cath.,  belfries  of,  409. 

Tomb  in  S.  Gatien,  394. 
Tracery :    English,  characteristics  of,  297, 
298;   flowing,  298. 

Flamboyant,  330  ff. 

German  fondness  for,  271,  294. 

Gothic     in     genefal,     215,      266-273 
(figs.). 

Italian,  31 1;   of  Ducal  Palace,  Venice, 

323  (fig-)- 
Perpendicular,  298,  300. 
Trebizond  :  Ch.  of  H.  Sophia,  136. 
Later  Byzantine  Chs.,  183. 


INDEX 


577 


Treves:  Cath.,  226. 

Ch.  of  Our  Lady  (Liebfrauenkirche), 

231- 

Roman  Gateway,  97. 
Trier,  see  Treves. 
Triumphal  Arches,  85. 
Troyes:  Cath.,  209. 

Ch.  of  S.  Gilles,  278  (fig.). 

Ch.  of  S.  Madeleine,  342  (fig.). 

Ch.  of  S.  Urbain,  263,  268  (fig.)' 
Tudor  Style,  357,  365. 

U. 
Ulm  :  Cath.,  229  n.,  294. 
Tower  of  Cath.,  354. 

V. 
Valencia :  Lonja  (Exchange),  353. 
Valladolid:  Ch,  of  S.  Gregorio,  351  (fig.). 

Ch.  of  S.  Pablo,  351,  422. 

College  of  Santa  Cruz,  353. 

College  of  S.  Gregorio,  353. 
Vanbrugh,  Sir  John,  530,  533. 
Vanvitelli  (Kaspar  Van  Wittel),  544. 
Varengeville :    Manoir   d'Ango,    4(X),   401 

(fig-)- 
Vault,  groined,  59,  68. 

Barrel  or  cradle,  59,  63,  68. 

Made  by  penetration  of  larger  by 
smaller  cylinder,  162,  415. 

Various  forms  of  Romanesque,  161  ff. 
Vaulting;  Byzantine,  its  freedom,  140. 

Fan-vaulting,  360  ff. 

Gothic,  begins,  187;  supposes  a  system 
of  counterpoise,  213,  276,  342;  de- 
veloped,   190  ff. ;    English,  240  ff., 

303.  305.  360. 

Italian,  use  of  iron  ties  in,  315,  317;  of, 
fifteenth  century,  328. 

Of  the  Renaissance,  369. 

Romanesque  attempts,  132;  groined, 
160  ff.,  186;   later,  156  ff. 

Roman  practice,  53,  59,  61  ff.,  65;  con- 
tinued in  Italy,  371  n. 

Sexpartite,  194. 
Vendome:  Ch.,  181  (fig.). 
2  P 


Venice :  Bridge  of  Sighs,  472. 
Bridge  of  the  Rialto,  472. 
Ch.  of  S.  Barnaba,  538. 
Ch.  of  S.  Fantino,  380,  381  (fig.),  460. 
Ch.  of  S.  Fosca,  539. 
Ch.  of  S.  Francesco  della  Vigna,  460, 

462. 
Ch.  of  S.  Giorgio  dei  Greci,  460. 
Ch.  of  S.  Giorgio  Maggiore,  460,  462, 

464. 
Ch.  of  S.  Giuliano,  458. 
Ch.  of  S.  Giustina,  538. 
Ch.  of  S.  Maria  Mater  Domini,  460, 
Ch.  of  S.  Mark,    131,    136,    159,    182, 

458- 
Ch.  of  S.  Pietro  in  Castello,  460. 

Ch.  of  S.  Zaccaria,  377  (fig.). 

Ch.  of  the  Redeemer  (del  Redentore), 
460,  462. 

Civic  Buildings,  323. 

Domestic  Buildings,  323. 

Ducal  Palace,  323  (fig.),  324;   giants' 
staircase  of,  458. 

Libreria  Vecchia,  454,  456  (fig.),  469. 

Loggetta  of  the  Campanile,  460. 

Mint,  the,  see  Zecca. 

Old  Library,  see  Libreria  Vecchia. 

Palazzo  Cornaro,  460. 

Palazzo  Corner  della  Regina,  539. 

Palazzo  Corner-Mocenigo,  460. 

Palazzo  Ducale,  see  Ducal  Palace. 

Palazzo  Flangini,  539. 

Palazzo  Grassi,  539  (fig.). 

Palazzo  Grimani,  460. 

Palazzo  Malipiero-Trevisan,  460. 

Palazzo  Pesaro,  539. 

Palazzo  Widman,  455  n.  (fig.). 

Scuola  di  S.  Giovanni  Evangelista,  541. 

Scuola  di  S.  Marco,  375. 

Scuola  di  S.  Rocco,  460  (fig.). 

Zecca,  454. 
Vernouillet:  Ch.,  181  (fig.). 
Verona:  Amphitheatre,  70,  85  n.,  1 10. 

Ch.  of  S.   Anastasia,    254   (fig.),    256 

(fig.),  319- 
Ch.  of  S.  Fermo,  252. 


578 


INDEX 


Verona :  Ch,  of  S.  M.  Antica,  326. 
Ch.  of  S.  Pietro  Martire,  325. 
Palazzo  Bevilacqua,  453. 
Palazzo    Gran'    Guardia    Antica,    454, 

473- 

Palazzo  Pompei,  452,  454. 

Roman  Arch,  87,  97. 

Tombs,  325,  326  (fig.). 
Versailles:  Chateau  (Palace),  390  ;  notice 
of,   479   fif. ;    Chapel   of,   481,   482 
(fig.),  484.  487.  488,  511,  544- 
Vezelay:  Abbey  Ch.,  161  (fig.),  172  (fig.). 
Vicenza :  Basilica  (so-called) ,  460. 

Palazzo  Chieregati,  460, 

Palazzo  Thiene,  460,  461  (fig.). 

Venetian  Gothic  in,  325. 

Villa  Rotonda,  464  (fig.). 
Vienna:    Cath.  (S.  Stephen),  229  n.,  291 
(fig.),  292  ff.;  Tower  of,  354,  355. 

Ch.  of  S.  Charles  Borromeo,  510. 

Palace  Trautson,  510. 
Vignola  (Giacomo  Barozzi),  466,  470,  471, 

518. 
Vignory:  Ch.,  150  (fig.). 
Villers-Cotterets :  Chateau,  409. 
Vilvorde:  Ch.,  283  (figs.). 
Viterbo :  Ch.  of  S.  Martino,  250. 
Vitruvius,  384,  385. 
Volterra :   Etruscan  remains,  xiii. 


W. 

Walcourt:  Jube  in  Ch.,  417. 

Warwick:    Ch.,  Beauchamp  Chapel,  360 

(fig-)- 
Webb,  John,  517,  518. 
Werben:  Fortifications,  357. 
Winchester :  Cath.,  300,  303. 
Windsor  Castle,  S.  George's  Chapel,  362 

(fig-),  363  ff- 
WoUaton  Hall,  441  (fig-),  448. 
Worms:  Cath.,  166,  170,  172,  227. 
Wren,  Sir  Christopher,  437,  518  ff.,  528. 

Churches  by,  519  ff.,  533. 
Wiirzburg :  Spire  of  Ch.  of  S.  Mary,  354, 
Wyatville,  Sir  Jeffry,  529. 

X. 

Xanthos :  Tombs,  37,  47,  48. 

Y. 

York:  Cath.  ("Minster"),  298,  304  n. 
Ypres :  Ch.  of  S.  Martin,  226. 
Cloth  Hall,  226. 

Z. 

Zaragoza:  Cath.  (El  Pilar),  500. 

Cath.  (El  Seo),  500  (fig.),  501. 

Ch.  of  S.  Cajetan,  500,  502. 
Zurich :  Town  Hall,  506,  507  (fig.). 


IN  PREPARATION. 


ARCHITECT,  OWNER,  AND  BUILDER 
BEFORE  THE  LAW. 


By    T.    M.    CLARK, 

Fellow  of  the  American  Institute  of  Architects,   Author  of 
^^ Building  Superintendence,"  etc. 


Square  8vo.      In  the  Press. 


This  book  is  the  work  of  a  layman,  whose  experience  in  business,  and  as  expert  be- 
fore the  courts,  has  convinced  him  that  the  conduct  of  building  cases,  and  the  manage- 
ment of  building  affairs,  might  be  assisted  by  a  collection  of  modern  precedents,  looked 
at  from  the  point  of  view  of  the  building  expert,  rather  than  that  of  the  lawyer.  Law- 
yers generally  dislike  building  cases,  as  they  often  turn  on  technical  points,  which  their 
training  has  not  fully  qualified  them  to  appreciate,  and  the  author  hopes  that  a  book  in 
which  these  points  are  particularly  considered  may  be  useful  even  to  persons  whose  legal 
knowledge  is  far  superior  to  his  own.  Recognizing  his  lack  of  qualifications  for  treat- 
ing of  strictly  legal  questions,  he  has  avoided,  as  far  as  possible,  any  statement  of  the 
law  on  his  own  authority,  quoting,  in  preference,  the  exact  words  of  the  judges  in  the 
highest  courts;  or,  where  these  were  not  available,  the  summaries  of  the  decisions  as 
given  by  the  official  Reporters.  In  order  to  do  this  efficiently,  he  has  undertaken  a  large 
amount  of  labor.  In  very  few  instances  is  anything  stated  on  the  authority  of  Digests, 
the  actual  /;ases  being  carefully  studied,  and  the  Reports  of  nearly  every  State  in  the 
Union  searched  for  cases  not  cited,  under  heads  relating  to  building  matters,  in  the 
Digests.  In  consequence  of  this  the  book  contains  hundreds  of  references,  particularly 
to  modern  cases,  which  are  not  given  in  any  other  work  on  the  subject  with  which  he  is 
acquainted;  and,  in  a  selection  of  those  involving  the  most  important  technical  points, 
the  exposition  of  those  points  by  the  Court  has  been  quoted  at  considerable  length,  in 
order  to  present  the  subject  in  a  way  to  avoid  all  possible  misapprehension. 

For  reasons  stated  in  the  book,  no  attempt  hns  been  made  to  give  a  synopsis  of  the 
constantly  varying  mechanics'  lien  laws  of  the  States,  or  a  model  form  of  specification, 
applicable  to  all  buildings;  but  a  chapter  on  Contracts  is  added,  which  contains  three 
forms,  suitable  for.  different  circumstances,  with  notes,  which,  it  is  hoped,  will  enable  any 
intelligent  person,  by  judicious  selection,  to  draw  a  satisfactory  building  contract  for  any 
conditions. 

Three  indexes  are  appended:  one  of  subjects;  one  of  cases  cited,  arranged  in  alpha- 
betical order;  and  one  of  States,  in  which  the  cases  cited  are  arranged  under  the  heads 
of  the  States  to  which  they  belong. 


THE   MACMILLAN   COMPANY, 

66  FIFTH  AVENUE,  NEW  YORK. 
3 


MODERN   PERSPECTIVE. 


A    TREATISE    UPON    THE    PRINCIPLES    AND    PRACTICE    OF 
PL.ANE   AND   CYLINDRICAL.  PERSPECTIVE. 

By  WILLIAM   R,  WARE, 

Professor  of  Architecture  in  the  School  of  Mines,  Columbia  College. 

Fifth  Edition.    In  one  volume,  square  8vo.    321  pp.,  with  27  Plates  in  a 
Portfolio.    Price  $5.00. 


This  is  by  far  the  most  exhaustive  of  modern  works  on  the  subjects 
relating  to  perspective,  plane  and  panoramic,  and  of  great  value  to  all 
architects  and  artists,  and  others  interested  in  the  problems  of  art.  The 
scientific  and  pictorial  aspects  of  these  investigations  are  carefully  and 
thoroughly  considered,  both  independently  and  in  their  connection  with 
drawing;  and  the  propositions  of  the  author  are  illustrated  by  plates  of 
architectural  objects  and  perspective  plans.  An  invaluable  book  for 
artists,  architects,  draughts?nen,  and  civil  engineers. 


CONTENTS. 


Chapter  I. 

n. 
ra. 

IV. 

V. 

VI. 

vn. 

vra. 

IX. 
X. 
XI. 

xn. 
xm. 

XIV. 

XV. 
XVI. 

xvn. 
xvni. 

XIX. 


The  Phenomena  of  Perspective  in  Nature. 

The  Phenomena  relating  to  the  Picture. 

Sketching  in  Perspective.  The  Perspective  Plan.  The  Divi- 
sion of  Lines  by  Diagonals. 

The  Division  of  Lines  by  Triangles. 

On  the  Exact  Determination  of  the  Direction  and  Magnitude  of 
Perspective  Lines. 

The  Position  of  the  Picture.  The  Object  at  45°.  Measurement 
of  Obliquely  Inclined  Lines. 

Parallel  Perspective.    Change  of  Scale. 

Oblique  or  Three-point  Perspective. 

The  Perspective  of  Shadows. 

The  Perspective  of  Reflections. 

The  Perspective  of  Circles. 

Distortions  and  Corrections.    The  Human  Figure. 

Cylindrical,  Curvilinear,  or  Panoramic  Perspective. 

Divergent  and  Convergent  Lines.  Shadows  by  Artificial 
Light. 

Other  Systems  and  Methods. 

The  Inverse  Process. 

Summary.    Principles. 

Geometrical  Problems. 

The  Practical  Problem. 


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